Head or brain transplants have long been seen as the holy grail for neurosurgery. In theory, they offer the nearest anyone could get to immortality. Despite many recent advances, surgeons still cannot reconnect or regrow severed spinal nerves. This means that, like the monkeys, anyone who underwent a head transplant would be paralysed from the neck down. It also means that the first candidates for such surgery would probably be people, like Reeve, who had already been paralysed.
Quadriplegics often die prematurely from multiple organ failure.
Transplanting their head to a new body could, however, give them the chance of a normal lifespan. White believes that, although the idea might shock the able-bodied, many quadriplegics would welcome it. Most of the subsequent demand for head transplants would, however, almost certainly come from a group presenting far greater ethical problems - elderly or dying millionaires with enough money to pay for the operation and the years of aftercare. The operational procedure, described by White in a paper published last week, would involve two teams of surgeons. Deep incisions would be made around the necks to expose the six major blood vessels and the spine.