title: Surgical, ethical, and psychosocial considerations in human head transplantation.
abstract: Transplanting a head and brain is perhaps the final frontier of organ transplantation. The goal of body-to-head transplantation (BHT) is to sustain the life of individuals who suffer from terminal disease, but whose head and brain are healthy. Ideally BHT could provide a lifesaving treatment for several conditions where none currently exists. BHT is no ordinary experiment, to transfer a head to another body involves extraordinarily complex medical challenges as well as ethical and existential dilemmas that were previously confined to the imagination of writers of fiction. The possibility of replacing an incurably ill body with a healthy one tests not only our surgical limits, but also the social and psychological boundaries of physical life and alters what we recognize life to be. The purpose of this target article, the complementary manuscript focused on immunological issues in BHT, and the accompanying Commentaries by scholars and practitioners in medicine, immunology, and bioethics is to review major surgical and psychosocial-ethical and immunological considerations surrounding body-to-head transplantation. We hope that together these ideas will provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the possibilities and challenges associated with BHT and initiate professional discussion and debate through which this new frontier in medicine is considered and approached.
authors.affiliation: Haley Center 7018, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA. Electronic address: allen.furr@auburn.edu.
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Furr
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 161 Fort, Washington Ave., Herbert Irving Pavilion 5-549, New York, NY, 10032, USA. Electronic address: mah1@cumc.columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: jpbarret@vhebron.net.
authors.forename: Juan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Barret
authors.affiliation: Frankfurt Initiative for Regenerative Medicine, Experimental Orthopedics & Trauma Surgery, J.W. Goethe-University, Friedrichsheim Orthopedic Hospital, Haus 97 B, 1OG, Marienburgstr. 2, 60528, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Electronic address: JHB121654@gmail.com.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Barker
mesh_terms: D016380:Brain Tissue Transplantation / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology; D006257:Head / Q000601:surgery*; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Composite tissue allotransplantation; Ethics; Frontiers in surgery; Head transplantation; Vascularized composite allografts reconstructive transplant surgery