A Chinese doctor who conducted numerous head transplant operations on mice has announced that his team will soon start the same experiment on monkeys this summer.

Ecns reported that the Chinese surgeon, who works at Harbin Medical University, is planning to conduct head transplant surgeries on monkeys after performing similar operations on hundreds of mice.

Like Us on Facebook

Although Dr. Ren Xiaoping and his team were successful in the mice head transplant experiments, only a handful of the test subjects lived long enough after the operation, according to Shanghai Daily.

The Washington Times report that Dr. Ren obtained a medical degree and established his practice in the United States.  After over 15 years in the US, he reportedly went back to China and continued his practice there.  One of the reasons for his return is said to be China's willingness to fund his medical research.

The doctor hopes that the fruits of his head transplant experiment can help future research on human head transplants.

The idea of human heads being transplanted onto bodies other than their own seems more like a bizarre idea straight from science fiction, but it can help save people suffering from muscular dystrophy or those with severe injuries to their spinal cords.

Neurosurgeons have to overcome several critical obstacles to successfully perform this sort of complex surgery. Surgeons have yet to figure out how to reconnect the head to the spinal cord, and at the same time the brain must still be alive during the operation.  Doctors are also aware that immune rejection between the head and the host body is likely to occur unless they can find a way to suppress it.  

In China, there is an ongoing debate on its viability and many are also concerned about the ethics of conducting such operations on animals.

Tsinghua University professor Jiang Jinsong said human head transplant will probably be unfeasible considering the cost of conducting such operation.  He also said that it is "unnecessary and cruel" to subject animals to such experiments where most of them are likely to die almost immediately after the transplant.

A medical ethics expert from Peking University, Wang Yifang, however, said that just because human head transplant is possible does not mean that such operation should be allowed.

Tagshead transplant, human head transplant, ren xiaoping, China Miice Head Transplant Experiment, China Monkey Head Transplant Experiment