An Italian doctor announced Friday that he will soon perform the world’s first human head transplant in China because medical communities in the United States and Europe would not permit the controversial procedure.
Canavero said the Chinese government and Xiaoping Ren, a Chinese doctor partnering with him on the procedure, would confirm the surgery’s date “within days” to signal its goal of becoming a world leader in all fields, including medicine.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to restore China to greatness. He wants to make it the sole superpower in the world. I believe he is doing it,” Canavero said.
Canavero would not divulge the identity of the Chinese donor or recipient. The donor will be the healthy body of a brain-dead patient matched for build with a recipient’s disease-free head.
Canavero estimates the procedure will cost up to $100 million and involve several dozen surgeons and other specialists.
He will simultaneously sever the spinal cords of the donor and recipient with a diamond blade. To protect the recipient’s brain from immediate death before it is attached to the body, it will be cooled to a state of deep hypothermia.
