The clandestiene experiments on head transplant- have been carried out separately by US and russian scientists since 1950's. It were as bizzare as creating two headed animal, switching heads of two headed monkeys.
The brain upto upper spinal cord can be kept alive by managing their blood supply- by reconnecting teh carotids and vertebral artery. The vertebral coloumn can also be fixed. The immune reaction can be managed by immunosuppressants.
The vision, eye movements, hearing, taste, smell will also be intact. But the million dollar question will be will he move his hands and legs, will he percieve his body. That will require reconnecting the spinal cord of two bodies.
Immence research have been going on in spinal cord injury- to recoonect two severed ends of psinal cord by stem cells and grafts!
If severed spinal cords can be restored (with stem-cell grafts)this way, perhaps head transplants might eventually become a scientific possibility - without leaving the unfortunate 'patient' permanently paralysed. Whether such operations would ever be deemed ethical is another matter - and the psychological and emotional implications simply beggar belief.
One thing's for certain. With surgical techniques improving at such a rapid rate, the issue will shortly be not whether we could carry out a human head transplant, but, much more importantly, whether we should.
For further reading- see link- :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=426765
