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Wheelchair-bound man volunteers for first ever head transplant

Posted at 11:54 AM, Sep 01, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-01 11:52:43-04

While most people try to get ahead in life, this guy just wants a new body.

Valery Spiridonov, 31, from Russia has volunteered to get his noggin popped off and placed on some other torso. We're talking about the first human head transplant, and an Italian neurosurgeon wants to take a whack at the procedure sometime next year.

Dr. Sergio Canavero claims he has successfully preformed head transplants on some mice and a monkey in the past. Now, Canavero hopes to move on to a bigger patient. Spiridonov suffers from a fatal genetic disease, and is confined to a wheelchair. The handicapped man sees a head transplant as his only hope and is willing to literally lay his neck on the line.

Canavero's game plan is to cool the Russian's head first. Then the good doctor will snip some cables here, chop some neck bones there and then glue the newly unattached head onto some donor body.

Easy breezy, right?

Oh, he also mentioned it will take 80 surgeons to perform the operation and will cost tens of millions of dollars. Don't you just hate it when insurance can't fully cover a procedure!

Of course, most of the scientific community is losing their heads over this proposed experiment, calling it unethical.

Will the world witness the first human head transplant, or is this procedure headed for trouble?