Robert J. White

Robert J. White (born 1925) is an American surgeon, best known for his head transplants on monkeys.

Early life

White was raised in Duluth, Minnesota by his mother and an aunt.

Research

In the 1970s, after a long series of experiments, White performed a transplant of one monkey head onto the body of another monkey, although it lasted just a few days. These operations were continued and perfected to the point where the transplanted head could have survived indefinitely on its new body, though the animals were in fact euthanized. The problem with this operation is that since no one currently knows how to repair nerve damage which would arise when the spinal cord is severed during the head transplant process, the recipient would become paralyzed from the neck down.

The transplanted heads can see, think, feel, and taste and in short can function in all the ways that they could when attached to their original body, they simply cannot control their new one. The importance of head transplants is that if performed in humans they have the potential to save lives from almost any disease. Anything that afflicts the non-head regions of the body, be it otherwise inoperable non-brain cancer, multiple organ failure, heart disease, diabetes, etc will be removed if the head is transplanted to a non-afflicted body. If one is paralyzed already and has these illnesses, then nothing much would really change when the head is transplanted. If one is not paralyzed, then one would have to decide whether to live paralyzed until a cure for paralysis can be developed, or to die of one's affliction. The bodies could be obtained through organ donors as is already the case with heart, lung, and kidney transplants. See the articles titled whole-body transplant and head transplant for more information.

White has also pioneered now widely-accepted spinal cord and brain cooling techniques, which now allow for therapeutic procedures not previously possible. For 40 years, he was a neurological surgery professor for Case Western Reserve University medical school, but is now retired.

More Information

Head transplants have been carried out on dogs and monkeys, more successfully on the former. The measure of success is both the length of time the animal survives after the operation, and the extent to which cerebral function is resumed. While Charles Guthrie, the American physiologist, was the first to “create” a two-headed dog by transplantation in 1908, it was the Russian, Vladimir Demikhov in the 1950’s, who produced the two headed dog, possessed of full cerebral function. The transplanted head of Guthrie’s dog only retained the most primitive movements. The key difference between the strategies of the two doctors was the time allowed to elapse between decapitation and attachment of the donor head to the recipient body. For this time period, the head is without oxygen supply, and the neurons are at risk of dying, thus debilitating brain function. Although Demikhov’s surgery was successful, after 6 days his two-headed dog died.

Unnerving as the dog operations may seem, the experimental surgeries carried out by Dr. Robert White, an American World War II veteran at the County Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio raised the bar on grotesque far higher. In 1962, he achieved a world’s-first by successfully removing an animal’s brain and keeping the brain alive. In 1964, he transplanted the brain of one dog into the neck of another dog, and connected it to the recipient dog’s blood supply, monitoring the brain activity with electrodes. His aim was to successfully keep the brain alive outside of a skull, but the issue of actually proving consciousness eluded him. In 2001, it was revealed to the world that his quest had led him to transplanting the head of a monkey to another’s body, deemed successful since the transplanted head could exhibit facial movements, and react to stimuli. However it was, of course paralysed.

While many deemed his operation “grotesque” he maintained that the next step was to carry out the same on humans. He pointed out that in the case of person with irreparable damage to their body or organs, the replacement of their entire body would be ideal. It would offer them a means to prolong their lifespan beyond what is currently possible. The transplant would offer options to those individuals, who would rather be quadriplegic than dead.

The opposing argument was outlined by Dr Stephen Rose, director of Brain and Behavioural Research at the Open University who remarked; “This is medical technology run completely mad and out of all proportion to what’s needed”. Since the donor head is not connected to the recipient body except by blood supply, he feels it cannot be called a true transplant. There is no real interaction with the recipient body. Indeed, looking at Dr. White’s original interest in maintaining the consciousness of the brain, it would seem his surgeries are driven more by a personal ambition than a true wish to benefit the scientific community.

Basically, head transplantation remains firmly unethical and without purpose unless repair can be carried out successfully on the spinal cord, thus ensuring the individual is not condemned to quadriplegia. If this barrier could be overcome, then, head transplantation would offer endless possibilities and opportunities. At the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of California, Irvine, spinal cords in mice have been shown to be repaired to some degree by stem cells. Mice which were partially paralysed by the spinal damage, could walk again after treatment. Many scientists, including Dr. Rose, believe we could be better served by researching stem cells (the cells which can be induced to become any cell type in the body), than by attempting large scale and complex head transplant operations. There is potential for treatment of spinal damage and muscular disabilities using stem cells. New, functioning neurons have been shown to be capable of being grown in the human hippocampus. And, in June of this year, researchers at Berkley University, California have been able revive the repair ability of muscle tissue in old mice. They achieved this by altering the biochemical pathway by which stem cells repair damaged tissue.

Quite aside from the problem of spinal cord repair, allowing a donor head to communicate effectively with the recipient body, there is the issue of transplant rejection to be considered, whereby the transplanted organ fails to be accepted by the recipient body leading to an immune attack on the organ. The extent of post operative treatment which could be required to allow an individual undergoing head transplantation to survive, may be too great to render the surgery a benefit at all.

guide to performing brain transplants

The idea that a human brain could be transplanted from one body to another body may sound straight out of Frankenstein. But Dr Robert White, Professor of Neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, believes such operations may be possible one day in the not too distant future. Here he explains why:

Read Dr White's guide to performing brain transplants Is human brain transplantation here or is it in the future?

There have been experiments in highly developed animals such as monkeys where the brain has been successfully transplanted. In one set of investigations the brain was retained in the skull and the head and transplanted to a new monkeys body successfully.

Should this form of operative technology be undertaken in humans?

Unfortunately under present circumstances the spinal cord must be severed and thus the brain that is transferred would have no neurological control over the body, or vice-versa.

Who would benefit today from this type of transplantation?

Obviously only those already paralysed from the neck down from spinal injuries. Someday it is hoped that the spinal cord can be rejoined. This would mean the transplanted brain would be able to control the body and also receive sensation from it. Obviously major immunological problems remain, resulting in tissue rejection.

While it appears that the brain maybe immunologically privileged this of course would not extend to the tissues of the head, and thus further work must be done to solve the problem of tissue rejection.

The Operation: Human Soul Transplantation

To think in terms of an operation for human brain transplantation anatomically the procedure should be considered a total 'body transplant'.

Therefore we should begin with the concept of where and how the body would be obtained. As present, any potential patient would be quadriplegic, an individual paralysed from the neck down.

They have no feeling or movement in their body, and unfortunately may face multi-organ failure, which in a short period of time would bring about death.

The 'donor' body would be obtained from a healthy brain dead individual, for example from a severe accident in which the trauma was exclusively directed to the head and brain. Thus, a clinically diagnosis of 'brain death' would be given, and the organs in the body would only remain alive by respiratory assistance, and a heart lung machine.

How to perform a human brain transplant in 11 easy(ish) steps Professor White says the procedures for such an operation would be as follows:

1 - The two 'patients' would be transferred to a specially designed operating room, equipped with apparatus for total body, human brain transplantation. 2 - Two teams of specially trained surgeons, nurses, scientists and technicians are on hand. This is because the two patients will be operated on simultaneously. 3 - Both patients will have to have a series of devices to monitor their brain and body activities during the operation. This will include brainwave, heart and blood monitoring. The most important measurement will be that of the brain. 4 - The operation in both patients is directed at the neck. The incision encompasses the entire neck with surgical division of all the tissues of the neck, including skin and muscles. A stage is reached in the operation where only the arteries, veins and spine remain. 5 - Bony vertebral elements of the spine at both the front and back are removed over several segments, exposing the spinal canal with its spinal cord and coverings. Metal plates are affixed to the remaining spine with screws above and below the area of absent bone. These will be used to fasten the spine together at the time of transplant. 6 - The surgery on the blood vessels is the most dangerous part of the operation. This is because to be transplanted, the brain can only be without its blood supply for an extremely short time. Therefore 'Loop' catheters are filled with a substance to prevent blood clotting, and are introduced into each blood vessel in the patient, to enable vascular transfer to be carried out. 7- Since the blood vessel transfer is the most concerning part of the procedure a specially designed piece of equipment has been made available. This mechanically supports the brain circulation, or can cool the brain very rapidly to temperatures in the region of 12ºC. This protects the brain for periods of over one hour if the blood circulation is completely cut off. 8 - The loop catheters are now arranged so that the blood circulation is passed from the donor body to the recipients head. The donor body now supplies the circulation to the recipient head. The spinal cords are divided and the recipient brain and head are transplanted to its new body. Its body is now used as a transfusion source. 9 -Both spines are fused together with the metal plates. The loop catheters carrying the blood supply are individually removed as the blood vessels are sewn together. If necessary the brain can be supported by the special instrument to provide it circulation or to cool it during these essential procedures. 10 - Now all the tissues of the neck wound are sewn together including the skin, and the brain transplanted patient is moved into a specially equipped intensive care unit. Great concern will remain in the area of tissue rejection, infection and circulatory support. Appropriate medications will be required. Also this patient will require permanent respiratory support and artificial feeding. 11 - When consciousness is regained we would expect that the patient's brain would function normally. They should be able to hear, see, taste, smell and think, and their memories should be totally intact. They can be instrumented for speech.

Video about Dr. White
Two Headed Dog Operation - Caution not for weak stomachs
Video with the monkeys - Caution not for weak stomachs - There is a video edit scare face at the end.

References