Scientist Wants To Perform Head Transplants On Monkeys
The Wall Street Journal recently watched over a medical researcher, Dr. Xiaoping Ren, who performed a unique surgery on a number of mice. After one of the 10-hour procedures, the paper reports that the mouse was able to open its eyes and make some movements but died shortly after.
According to Ren, he has carried out the test on mice many times since he first began in 2013 and hopes that new techniques he is developing will eventually allow the mice to live past the current record he has achieved of one day. He eventually wants to try out the controversial surgery on monkeys as he hopes that the animals would be able to “live and breathe on its own, at least for a little while.”
The aim of the research is to look into the viability of carrying out head transplants on humans in the future. Anyone whose body has been damaged by disease or injured through an accident could potentially have their head transplanted onto another body. That possibility is still a long way off, though.
“We want to do this clinically, but we have to make an animal model with long-term survival first,” Ren told the WSJ. “Currently, I am not confident to say that I can do a human transplant.“
