Italian surgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero, the director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, believes head transplants in humans are possible and the first could occur as early as 2017.

He intends to be the first to perform this procedure that never before been attempted in humans. Variations of head transplants have been successfully attempted on dogs and rhesus monkeys in the past, however.

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"I think we are now at a point when the technical aspects are all feasible", Dr. Canavero told New Scientist.

Dr. Canavero said his "Gemini" spinal fusion protocol could be used to extend the lives of patients suffering from progressive muscle and nerve diseases and terminal cancer.

In June, Dr. Canavero will discuss his head surgery concept at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopedic Surgeons in Annapolis, Maryland. His plans for human head transplantation are expected to receive skepticism and even scorn from the medical community judging from the furious reaction in the media when news of it broke yesterday.

The concept isn't new to Dr. Canavero, who first proposed it in 2013. He has since continued to research and develop the technique.

In a video interview with SkyNews, Dr. Canavero said he's been working on the concept for the past 30 years in response to a statement head transplantation was more science fiction than fact.

Dr. Canavero published a follow-up paper in the journal Surgical Neurology International that gives details about how he intends to accomplish this surgery while also keeping the patient's nerves intact.

In simple terms, the transplant head and the donor body would need to be cooled to slow cell death. Then, the neck of both would be cut and the major blood vessels linked with tubes. Finally, the spinal cords would be severed, with as clean a cut as possible.

His first challenge in a head transplant will be to identify the right patients. The recipient will be a mentally well person but with a failing body. The suitable donor body needs to come from a brain-dead patent. Dr. Canavero plans to use two brain-dead patients during his first head transplant surgery.

Both the recipient's head and the donor's body need to be cooled sufficiently to give cells more time survive without an oxygen supply. The recipient's head will then be connected to the donor's body.

The two ends of the spinal cords are fused together using polyethylene glycol, a chemical that can help promote the re-growth of cells in the spinal cord. The muscles and blood supply will then be joined.

The patient will be kept in a coma for three to four weeks to prevent movements.

Dr. Canavero said the patient needs to take medications for life after the surgery to prevent his immune system from rejecting the donated parts.

Arthur Caplan, a contributor to Forbes, said scientifically what Dr. Canavero wants to do cannot yet be done and may never be doable.

"To attempt to move a brain to a new body given what is known about the medicine and science involved, one would have to be out of one's mind".