#11: Monkey-Head Transplant (Comments)

"Very well-researched and delivered in an engaging, breezy, wink-wink tone similar to that of Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg's Why Do Men Have Nipples?, this will likely be enjoyed equally by science buffs and casual aficionados of the curious. One of the finest science/history bathroom books of all time."
-Kirkus Reviews

OTHER BOOKS BY ALEX BOESE

#11: Monkey-Head Transplant

When Vladimir Demikhov unveiled his two-headed dogs in 1954, it inspired a strange kind of surgical arms race (or rather, head race) between the two superpowers. Eager to prove that its surgeons were actually the best in the world, the American government began funding the work of Robert White, who then embarked on a series of experimental surgeries, performed at his brain research center in Cleveland, Ohio, resulting in the world's first successful monkey-head transplant.

The head transplant occurred on March 14, 1970. It took White and his assistants hours to perform the carefully choreographed operation, separating a monkey's head from its body and reattaching it to a new body. When the monkey woke and found that its body had been switched for a new one, it angrily tracked White with its eyes and snapped at him with its teeth. The monkey survived a day and a half before succumbing to complications from the surgery. As bad as it was for the monkey, it could have been worse. White noted that, from a surgical point of view, it would have been easier to put the monkey's head on backwards.

White thought he should have been treated like a hero, but instead the public was appalled by what he had done. Nevertheless, White soldiered on, campaigning to raise support for a human head transplant. He toured with Craig Vetovitz, a near-quadriplegic, who volunteered to be the first to undergo the procedure. The public is still a long way from accepting the idea of human head transplants, but if White has his way, one day it will happen.

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Total Comments: 34

Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

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So many thoughts on this one but I do remember my dad say after his body began to degenerate rapidly 'pity they've not got around to head transplants ! 'As somebody with a sharp mind to the end of his life it was very scary for him to observe this decline.
Posted by jill in edinburgh on Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 01:37 PM

What kind of sick fuck would do something so acenine?! Hasn't anyone thought about the consequences of splicing bodies with heads? There are so many factors that could cause disasterous resaults on the recipiants. we would be creating mutants, especially when the RNA of the head transplantee mixes withe DNA of the doner's body. the mutation could potentially create a very infectious disease such as cancer, a contagious cancer. we should be extremely cautious with any kind of transplant we preform with any organ.
I am shocked and appaled that there are actually people who support this perversion. A kidney transplant is one thing, but this totally different.
Posted by Randy in Colorado on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 06:51 PM

This is just sick, and disgusting.

I wouldnt want a headtransplant if i was quadriplegic. I wouldnt be me anymore.

White is a sick man for doing this to animals too, useless buisiness.
Posted by Me on Tue Apr 15, 2008 at 03:56 AM

I don't understand people.
Everyone claims to believe in a God and a Heaven, and that is supposed to be a peaceful place. So why is everyone so damn afraid of death that they think that they need to stretch their lives until the infinite?

There will be an end to your life someday, just face it.
Posted by Lana on Tue Apr 15, 2008 at 04:03 AM

人均住房面积超过了16平方米上海搬家相比1996年的8.7平方米，这个数字已经翻了一倍，上海搬家公司建于上世纪90年代初的公兴搬场公司上海大众搬家公司几乎见证了上海人的搬家史。上海大众搬家听公司一些老职工说起为上海百姓搬家的故事，上海搬场可以深切感受：上海人是怎样一步步“搬”往新生活的……上海搬场公司搬家更频繁了，元旦前夕，新上海人小孙搬入了刚买的新房上海大众搬场公司三室两厅，100多平方米。他自豪地说，我工作6年，从开始租房上海大众搬场到买一室一厅老公房，再到如今置换用来结婚的新房，少说已搬了五六次家。
塑料方便袋是我国最广泛、最普通、最大量的一次性消费品，给人们带来方便。无纺布制袋机塑料方便袋与人们生活息息相关，无论是到超市购物，还是集市买菜制袋机无论城乡、季节、还是日常生活、衣食住行无处不用。据初步统计，每人每天至少消耗一只制袋机一个集市每天需要几万至几十万只，市场巨大、永不枯竭。制袋机随着社会的进步，经济的发展，生活水平的提高。人们对产品的包装和形象的宣传越来越重视，对焊机对包装袋作为广告载体的认知度也越来越高。印刷袋的需求呈爆炸式的增长。方便袋低值易耗的特点，涂布机决定了市场的永不饱和，是真正的朝阳行业印刷机巨大的市场为投资该行业的客户朋友提供了广阔的前景复合机生产塑料方便袋无需品牌，投资小，回报快，经济效益持续稳定分切机因为塑料袋型号太多，不可能一概而算
Posted by 21233sda in 43243 on Thu Jun 12, 2008 at 07:32 AM

Your blog was so interesting and informative I had to call a friend to tell her about it. Great work
Posted by Athones in Chad, Bath on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 02:04 AM

I would not oppose any medicine advancement that is achieved without causing any harm to any person.

If there was a harmless and useful way of having complete head, brain or body transplants, it could be a huge achievement to medicine.

But we have to think about what we have here. When Dr. White performed his experiment, he had to severe the monkey's spinal cord in order to separate his head from his original body, what rendered him quadriplegic. At that time it was impossible to reconstruct its nerves and nowadays it is still impossible, otherwise quadriplegic people could be treated in order to regain their lost body functions.

So, even if the advances of the medicaments against tissue rejection could allow a person to not die from tissue rejection after the transplant, why would a quadriplegic want to transplant his head to a quadriplegic body? That's why studies in this area were abbandoned for good. There are many other difficulties to be solved before considering again a head or brain transplant.
Posted by Fernando in São Paulo, Brazil on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 02:07 PM

it's interesting that just recently there was talk about farming human bodies without heads so there would be a "crop" of body parts.... this seemed too guesome to think too long about. But now that we're going to need these bodies for our upcoming 'head' need it all makes sense!!! (ewwww!) It's creepy to think about, scary to acknowledge someone somewhere is really doing it and frightening to think we may end up somehow a part of it at some point:(
Posted by audrey in chicago on Wed Aug 06, 2008 at 11:47 AM

while america and russia cut the heads off of animals to prove who was the best, the rest of the world proved they were better than america and russia by NOT cutting the heads off of animals.
Posted by lol on Tue Sep 16, 2008 at 08:43 PM

I would definitely not want my head attached to the body of a person with cancer, who was insane or suicidal.

I would accept the body of person who died from head trauma, period.

But what if I was dying and the only body available was of the opposite sex? Would I accept the body? Would the doctors do the surgery if I did accept it? Would I be male or female? Would my insurance pay for a sex transplant?
Posted by Pat in California on Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 02:30 PM

No one I mean no one on this earth would turn down a second chance of life, if their body had been taken by an accident. Yes, I feel for the monkeys but when has anything that has been worth while ever been simple and without some consequence?
Posted by Dannystaples on Wed Nov 12, 2008 at 10:59 AM

You guys do realize that the monkey had absolutely no control over his own body, right? I'm not even sure the organs functioned correctly, seeing as the monkey died shorty after the 'transplant'. And, seeing as the monkey had no bodily control, why in the world would paralyzed people want the 'transplant'?
I mean, you'd still be paralyzed, but you'd die in a couple days... I guess it's a good idea if you want to kill yourself, but that's about it.
Scientists excuse this whole experiment because it's impossible for the body to regenerate the nerves needed for this to work... So, this is nothing but a waste of money and the life of a poor monkey.
Posted by Nicole in Here on Tue May 12, 2009 at 09:50 AM

Dear God, what is this world becoming.

I just discovered this by watching monster quest, and stumbled upon this site.

After seeing this I wanted too: cry, yell, shoot myself, screeem, puke till my floor turned red, and then make it all go away.

This is FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm not an animal rights activist, but I am a people rights activist, and this is...is going to be people cruelty. This shit aint going away, our world is as fucked as it ever was, and the sooner I leave the better.
How long before the government begins to decide at which point our brains aren't worth saving, and our body's to decrepit for them to be worth feeding?
I'm not saying that it WILL come to this, but that It CAN and very likely will!
The sadist part is that we put ourselves in to these types of situations, they say, "we'll cure cancer" and we give them OUR money, and then they go make a monstrosity, or decide to go test ADD meds on monkeys!

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity" - Harlan Ellison
Posted by probibly dead by now on Sun May 31, 2009 at 05:06 PM

@Derek--regarding your cliche modernist speech.
you didn't mention how many scientists, doctors today show that body/head transplant experiments have little value -considering spinal cord damage-occurs when heads are severed===meaning that if your old body couldnt move/work....the new one sure as hell won't either..
there is also the issue of RNA/DNA mutations- risk of disease resulting from those mutations.

also that stem cell research provides more promising solutions to the same problems

instead you went on and on how these experiments( deemed pointless by many scientists)for the sake of knowledge and experience....really funny.

you do not have all the facts but you support the experiments claiming they are promising and represent a pursuit of knowledge. you also call opponents closed minded idiots.

fanaticism is the real problem..whether it works through religion or science, it is always based on ignorance and arrogance.

the problem is the mindless drones spewing ideological poison that infest religious and scientific institutions rather than the institutions themselves...
Posted by darren in Hamilton, Ontario on Wed Nov 04, 2009 at 12:10 PM

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