The world's first full-body transplant, in which someone's head would be sewn onto a donor body, will be possible within two years, it has been revealed.
Controversial surgeon Sergio Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy believes that this technique can save the lives of people riddled with cancer or whose nerves and muscles have wasted away, the Independent reported.
Canavero said that he thinks people are now at a point when the technical aspects are all feasible. If society doesn't want it, he won't do it, but if people don't want it in the US or Europe, that doesn't mean it won't be done somewhere else.
Harry Goldsmith of the University of California, Davis, said that this is such an overwhelming project, the possibility of it happening is very unlikely, adding he doesn't believe it will ever work as there are too many problems with the procedure.
Patricia Scripko of the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System in California, also doubted the operation would be possible, but said if a head transplant were ever to take place, it would be very rare and it's not going to happen because someone says "I'm getting older, I'm arthritic, maybe I should get a body that works better and looks better."
In an operation, which was carried out on a monkey with a limited degree of success in 1970, the surgeons did not join the spinal cord so the animal could not move and it lived only nine days until the head was rejected by the body's immune system.