Ahead of Our Time: Why Head Transplantation Is Ethically Unsupportable

Abstract

An ethical approach to evaluating the attachment of a donor head and a donor body¹1. In actuality, under current parlance, as Ren and Cenavero note, the procedure is a body transplant onto a head, as the body is considered the “donor” material. However, given my objections as described in the following, I use “head/body transplant” in this discussion and consider the two as equivalent.1. In actuality, under current parlance, as Ren and Cenavero note, the procedure is a body transplant onto a head, as the body is considered the “donor” material. However, …1. In actuality, under current parlance, as Ren and Cenavero note, the procedure is a body transplant onto a head, as the body is considered the “donor” material. However, …View all notes is challenged by two opposing temptations. On one side, it is easy to succumb to the common initial response of shock, repulsion, and knee-jerk opposition, which, in this case, is fueled by Sergio Canavero’s flamboyant and un-self-critical public and professional presentation. Ethical outrage is an easy response. Equally tempting is a sober analysis of the proposition itself, a discussion of whether head/body transplants are in and of themselves objectionable, and if so, under what circumstances, without discussing the actual context or personalities who are (they claim) preparing to attempt the procedure.

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