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[speer@interport.net (speer)]

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
http://www.aec.at/lifescience
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The below would render the gender issue mute.. i can't imagine that a male
head couldn't be transplanted onto a female and vice versa..  women could be
transplanted onto a mans "husk" to impregnate a special female friend,, men
could be transplanted to a womans to carry a baby to term,, if they are
adverse to artificial wombs..

    But sex is something people talk about when they are not having it!!!!!!

   





http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/Sunday-Times/stinwenws03005.html?10


        Head transplants give
         paralysed new hope

                  Jonathan Leake
                  Science Editor

A LEADING brain surgeon has unveiled plans to perform the
first human head transplant. The operation, already carried
out successfully on dogs and monkeys, would initially cost
£800,000.

Among those who could benefit are quadriplegics with
conditions similar to that of Christopher Reeve, the Superman
actor paralysed after a fall from a horse. The operation may
also appeal to rich people with terminal illnesses.

The technique for transplanting heads was proven in principle
with small mammals in the early 1990s. However, it was
abandoned when scientists realised that the extra time needed
to reconnect larger human arteries and muscles would
deprive the brain of oxygen and cause tissue damage.

Last week it was claimed that this obstacle has finally been
overcome. Robert J White, an American neurosurgeon, said
he had developed a blood-cooling system that meant a living
head could be disconnected from its blood supply for up to
an hour without ill-effect.

White and his team, based at Case Western Reserve
University in Ohio, claim they have already practised the
techniques on corpses retained for medical research at the
American hospital where he works.

The White machine cools the brain from 37C to 10C. "This
slows the metabolism and allows plenty of time to reconnect
a head to its new body. All we are waiting for now is the
money and the patients," White said last week.

White has carried out more than 10,000 brain operations on
humans. His work on monkeys, which started over 20 years
ago, culminated in the full head transplants.

The animals survived for more than a week with no
impairment of mental faculties before they were put down, for
humane reasons.

Head or brain transplants have long been seen as the holy
grail for neurosurgery. In theory, they offer the nearest
anyone could get to immortality.

In reality, however, White's technique would initially have a
more limited application. Despite many recent advances,
surgeons still cannot reconnect or regrow severed spinal
nerves. This means that, like the monkeys, anyone who
underwent a head transplant would be paralysed from the
neck down.

It also means that the first candidates for such surgery would
probably be people, like Reeve, who had already been
paralysed. Quadriplegics often die prematurely from multiple
organ failure. Transplanting their head to a new body could,
however, give them the chance of a normal lifespan.

White believes that, although the idea might shock the
able-bodied, many quadriplegics would welcome it. "It would
be hard to deny them that chance through squeamishness
when we are already transplanting lungs, hearts and livers," he
said.

Most of the subsequent demand for head transplants would,
however, almost certainly come from a group presenting far
greater ethical problems - elderly or dying millionaires with
enough money to pay for the operation and the years of
aftercare.

The operational procedure, described by White in a paper
published last week, would involve two teams of surgeons.
Deep incisions would be made around the necks to expose
the six major blood vessels and the spine. The next step
would be to cool the head by connecting it to White's new
cerebral perfusion machine. Initially this would carry blood
from the original body but, as the operation progressed, a
second set of tubes from the machine would be hooked up to
blood vessels of the recipient body.

Then, taps would switch off the head's blood supply from the
original body and replace it with blood from the new body.

At this point the head would be detached, by severing the
spinal cord, and then attached to the new body. Such
procedures could mean halting the blood supply but the
brain's low temperature would minimise the risk of damage.
Then the blood vessels, muscles and skin could be sewn
together using standard surgical techniques.

Reeve, who has set up a foundation to promote research into
the causes of paralysis and potential cures, is understood to
have taken a close interest in White's research.

White refused to reveal his future clients but was confident
many would come forward. He said: "The Frankenstein
legend, where a human being is constructed by sewing parts
together, will become a reality early in the 21st century."
mark stephen meadows
   artist/illustrator, xerox-parc
pighed@bore.com
650-359-7151v 650-359-1691f
[ www.bore.com ]|[ www.boar.com ]

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