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The concept of head or brain transplants has long been a sort of Holy Grail for brain surgeons, says Dr. [Robert J. White]. They have already been performed on dogs, monkeys and human cadavers. In fact, it has been nearly three decades since Dr. White and his colleagues first successfully transplant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAlberta report Vol. 26; no. 36; p. 40
Main Author McGovern, Celeste
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Edmonton United Western Communications 20.09.1999
Subjects
Head
Human body
Surgery
White, Robert J
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Summary:The concept of head or brain transplants has long been a sort of Holy Grail for brain surgeons, says Dr. [Robert J. White]. They have already been performed on dogs, monkeys and human cadavers. In fact, it has been nearly three decades since Dr. White and his colleagues first successfully transplanted the head of a rhesus monkey. "We were dancing in the laboratory when the first monkey woke up and we saw it looking around the room. Some people were even crying," recalls the surgeon. Perhaps, says a careful Father Thomas Lynch, professor of moral theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Scarborough, Ont. And in the strictly defined scenario where the donor has experienced "whole brain death" and the recipient would die otherwise, brain transplantation would be "effectively allowable," even under the conservative medical-ethical doctrines of the Catholic Church. But, warns Father Lynch, there is grave danger of "devaluing the body and the person." "What of Alzheimer's patients," he asks. If the mind is the exclusive repository of the soul, are their souls degenerating too? What about transsexuals who want a new body of the opposite sex? Or old people who want a young body to extend their mortality?
ISSN:0225-0519