Head transplants raise legal and ethical questions

Valery Spiridonov, the man who has volunteered to be the first person to undergo a head transplant, attends a news conference in Vladimir, Russia, June 25, 2015. The 30-year-old Russian, who has a degenerative muscle condition known as Werdnig-Hoffman, will be operated upon by Italian neurosurgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero who believes he has a 90 percent chance of success. [Photo/Agencies]

Sergio Canavero, an Italian doctor well-known for advocating head transplants, recently told the media that the first head transplant will be done in China by the end of 2017.

He said, the Chinese medical team is familiar with the relevant techniques and the first patient to undergo such an operation will be Chinese.

We are not sure whether the surgery is as mature as he suggests and whether a head transplant would succeed. But before such a transplant is attempted there are legal and ethical questions to be considered.

Currently there has been no successful head transplant involving animals. Therefore would the operation to transplant a human head be an experiment? If so, is such an experiment legal and ethical?

More importantly, if most medical professionals strongly oppose such an operation but the doctor still insists on doing it, and the patient dies, what responsibility will the doctor bear?

Many argue that the law should be more tolerant of medical developments and experiments are needed to realize medical progress. However, the slightest error would likely lead to the death of the patient. Canavero did not say what he thought the odds were for success and no medical association supports his experiment. Sometimes science advances at the cost of human lives, but that does not mean sacrificing patients in pursuit of glory.