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What Happened to the First Planned Human Head Transplant?
A Russian computer scientist volunteered to become the first person to have his head transplanted onto another body.
In 2015, Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero announced an audacious plan: he intended to remove the head of a living human being and attach it to a donor body.
His proposed first patient was Valery Spiridonov, a Russian computer engineer suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic disease that progressively weakens and wastes muscles. Spiridonov was confined to a wheelchair and believed that conventional medicine offered him little hope of a long life.
For him, Canavero’s extraordinary proposal was not just a scientific experiment but a chance to replace a failing body while preserving his brain.
So, Spiridonov agreed to become the first volunteer.
The operation, however, never took place.
A head transplant — without science fiction
Canavero’s proposal was based on a deceptively simple idea.
