The former NHS neurosurgeon claims that the first human head transplant could occur in the next 10 years and that he knows how this feat can be performed.
Bruce Matthew, former Chief of Neurosurgery at Hal University Hospital, was working on a science fiction novel with the Institute of Futurology founder Michael Lee when he realized the potential key to the success of this surgery. He believes that surgeons would not only transplant a man's head but would also have to transplant his entire spinal cord into another body. It would be a revolution in medicine.
So far, several scientists who have tried head transplants have focused mainly on methods that destroy the spinal cord, an idea that Matthew, who has performed more than 10,000 surgeries, is described as "utterly ridiculous."
But this surgeon argues that advances in neurosurgery, robotics, and stem cell transplantation mean that it would be possible to reattach the entire spinal cord with its head to another body. He predicts this could happen before 2030.
- At first, we intended to discuss the idea, which seemed pretty silly at first, but then I realized it wasn't. If you have a brain transplant and hold the brain and spinal cord together, this is not impossible. The spinal cord is the deepest imaginable. You have to keep your brain connected to your spinal cord. The thought of doing it differently is utterly ridiculous. You can connect one or two nerves right now, but thanks to robotics and artificial intelligence, we will soon be able to do it with 200 nerves. It is very difficult to get the spinal cord out without damage, we will need a series of refinements, but I believe it will be feasible in the next 10 years - said, Matthew.
While this method would not be helpful for those with spinal injuries, it could help those with a degenerative muscular disease.
Matthew said there were still doubts as to how well the transplanted parts could integrate with so much of another person's DNA and that bacteria from the gut might also need to be transferred. He believes that stem cell transplantation could prevent possible tissue rejection.
