Projects "HEAVEN" and "GEMINI" that cut human heads and transplant them to others' bodies?

ByBotgirl Questi

It is said that it is difficult to repair the cut spinal cord as it is, therefore it is considered impossible to transplant a human head unlike organ transplant etc. However, seriously studying the "head transplant surgery" method and planning to perform surgery on humans in 2017 is a research team of doctors Sergio Canavero et al. Dr. Canavero tells us why head transplants are possible and what future will come when head transplantation becomes possible.

The "Gemini" spinal cord fusion protocol: Reloaded
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4322377/

The Plan to Save a Life by Head Transplant - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/the-audacious-plan-to-save-this-mans-life-by-transplanting-his-head/492755/

Human Head Transplants Could Be Possible
http://www.menshealth.com/health/human-head-transplant

Next Big Future: Human volunteer for Head transplant surgery
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2015/04/human-volunteer-for-head-transplant.html

Head Transplantation: The Future Is Now | Dr.Sergio Canavero | TEDxLimassol - YouTube


"A long time ago, a doctor lost a close friend with cancer, the doctor just got saddened, but as he was a very good American surgeon, he said" Did you think that I could not avoid guns spread to my body by transplanting to the body of a person? "Dr. Canavero speaks out.


Based on the above idea, in the 1970s Dr. Robert White conducted an experiment to transplant the monkey's head. However, since there was no technique to reconnect the cut spinal cord at that time, paralysis remained in the body of the monkey. At this time, among the monkeys who had undergone head transplantation surgery, there were individuals recovered by the time they chewed the items after surgery, while not smelling, not being able to listen to the sounds, or seeing thingsThere were also monkeys who died.

For over 35 years since the first head transplant surgery, researchers around the world have been studying ways to cure spinal paralysis, but the experiments that have been considered "hopeless" All failed. Therefore, among researchers, many think that "it is impossible to reconstruct the spinal cord, so it is impossible to transplant the head."

Among them, Sergio Canavero doctors are advancing "HEAVEN(The head anastomosis venture project / head joining venture project) "and"GEMINISpinal implants for transplantation.

In common sense so far, "body movement" has been told to be produced in the brain. There are both "orchestra" and "conductor" in the brain, stimulation emitted from the brain is transmitted to the spinal cord, it is the theory that it sends a signal to the body through a special "motor highway 1" .


Canavero says motor highway 1 is the axon contained in the white matter in the spinal cord, just like a spaghetti in the photograph a million bundles of fibers are bundled and all of the fibers It is said that all is necessary.


In the spinal cord, this bunch of spaghetti is "Motor neuronI am connected with nerve cells called "Nerve cells." This flow makes "movement" possible for humans.

The above is the relationship between the brain and the spinal cord which is generally known. However, doctor Canavero's research said that facts different from these common sense have been revealed.

First of all, Canavero's doctor said that "spinal cord injury" and "spinal cord disconnection" have different meanings at all. Doa says Canavero who squeezes the banana and drops it to the floor, saying "This is a spinal cord injury."


And in the explanation of the cutting of the spinal cord in "GEMINI", cut the banana with two knives.

Then put the cut banana back into one chunk.


The force applied to the spinal cord to the spinal cord is 26,000 newtons, whereas the force that spinal cutting by GEMINI with a very sharp blade adds is about 10 newtons, so neither axons in white matter nor neurons in gray matter I will not hurt you. Therefore, spinal cord injury is difficult to recover, but spinal cord cut can be recovered.

Also, as research has advanced, a program to move the human body from the spinal cord was found. This means that the spinal cord is not a slave who receives a signal of the brain, which is a "conductor and orchestra", and that the brain is a conductor and the spinal cord is an orchestra relationship. A conductor is attached to the orchestra, but an orchestra can be played even without a conductor. However, the music at that time may not be perfect.

The above contents were found in experiments which give electrical stimulation to the spinal cord. Electric stimulation at a level not damaging the spinal cord was given to patients with unrelated lower body, and the patient was able to stand up, move his legs and walk away even if the spinal cord was damaged.


In addition, some of the past studies recover basic athletic ability from there, even if motor highway 1 (axon) is disconnected, if a specific cell is completely left by 20% You can do it. Even in patients who actually had Parkinson's disease motor highway 1 and had paralysis symptoms, I could recover until I could move.

Although research was published in the beginning of the 20th century, there are existence that have been ignored for many years by experts. It is "motor highway 2" in the spinal cord,gray matterThe role of.


The axon of white matter has been emphasized as a necessary thing for human beings to move so far, but the gray matter going through the long spinal cord is also very important that Dr. Canavero asserts. It is possible that the signal from the brain can move the body by going through the gray matter. And the gray matter quality of motor highway 2 is very fast playback speed, and the addition of electric stimulation accelerates playback speed further. According to Canavero doctor, even if the motor highway 1 is all cut off, if the motor highway 2 in the center of the spinal cord remains intact, the patient with quadriplegic paralysis will regain complete motor function in just one year It will be possible.

And what becomes important for restoration of the severed spinal cord is "Polyethylene glycol(PEG) "is a chemical substance.

PEG is not a special chemical used only for GEMINI, it is also included in body creams and sunscreens. It was relatively recent that PEG was used in surgery for humans in 1999, but now it is used to repair the severed peripheral nerves. And in 2015 a German researcher reported that PEG was used in rats that were injured in the spinal cord, so that we could walk the rats in a few weeks.

Canavero's method such as "HEAVEN" "GEMINI" uses these techniques. As a solution for those who are neurological intractable diseases and the hands and feet do not move and can not be separated from the bed and Western medicine can not solve the problem, "Remove the head from the incompetent body to the healthy body of the brain dead patient It is proposed to attach ". "It's like a common organ transplant and instead of donating lungs and heart, it provides the whole body," Dr. Canavero said.

And furthermore, if we develop the technology of head transplantation, it seems that doctor Canavero thinks that human beings may be able to overcome death. If brain transplantation becomes possible, people can transplant their brains to their favorite bodies,Young human plasma improves cognitionIn light of the research result, it is a theory that you can rejuvenate the brain and prolong the life span by transplanting the brain to a young human body. However, in December 2016There is no "rejuvenation effect" in young bloodResearch results have also been announced.


In addition, when performing a head transplant, the patient's body is cooled to around 10 degrees and temporarily stops the flow of blood, so the patient will experience "death" during that time. A person temporarily experiencing death by surgery and the like may talk about "near-death experiences", and if brain surgery is realized the possibility that the final answer of what "death" is obtained Dr. Canavero suggested.

For the research of doctors Canavero et al., "The number of samples is small", "there is no comparison object in some experiments" "There is no evidence that the spinal cord was cut to the extent reported in dog experiments There are many researchers who are skeptical from the viewpoints such as "being sufficient," "pace at which research can proceed too quickly" and so on.

However, Dr. Canavero quotes Mahatma Gandhi's words at the end of the movie "I ignore them first, then laugh and then challenge, we will win". In December 2017, a man who is a computer scientist of Russia with a degenerative diseasePlan to undergo head transplant surgeryIt is announced.