FIRST HUMAN HEAD TRANSPLANT IN 2017: THE RISKS AND RESERVATIONS

The surgery — which will take 100 surgeons 36 hours, and cost $12.6 million — will be performed on a computer scientist from Russia who suffers from muscular dystrophy, says Ranu Joardar

Imagine that it’s the 1970s or 80s and top neuroscientists declared that human head transplant is possible. Everybody would have laughed it off. Here we are knocking at 2016, and human head transplant looks possible with a project code-named HEAVEN/GEMINI.

For several years we have limited our dreams to see xenotransplantation (replacing a human organ/body part with an animal’s part) become a success. Mythology has stories where God breathed life into a dead body by doing xenotransplantation, like in the case of Lord Ganesha and King Daksha.

In 1996, the dream of transposing one’s head with another was depicted in Tim Burton directed American comic science movie Mars Attacks! The film has a scene where Mars inhabitants transpose a journalist’s head with her pet’s body. Of course, this scene made many laugh their heads off! Some scientists, in fact, dared to make it possible by conducting such operations — all of which failed.

Well now we can let go of xenotransplantation as come 2017 and we may see head transplantation. Recently a Chinese professor of Harbin Medical University, Ren Xiaoping, along with Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, announced that they will be conducting a surgery wherein they will put a person’s head onto another person’s body in December 2017.

Head transplants, or body transplants depending on how you look at them, are not just a thing of quirky horror movies. In as little as two years’ time, a new chapter may be added to the medical history if the human head transplant becomes a success.

Xiaoping and Canavero have started working hard toward making the seemingly impossible thing possible. With the declaration of this mind blowing surgery, Canavero  has also earned the name of Dr Frankenstein.

The surgical procedure is called Allogeneic Head and Body Reconstruction. It involves transplanting a healthy human body, most likely donated by a brain dead person, to a person with a healthy brain and damaged body. However, many researchers are apprehensive about the success of this surgery.

Dr Li Wei, a transplant surgeon at the General Hospital of Armed Police Forces in Beijing, has been quotes as saying that this surgery is too good to be true. He said a number of technical problems arise with such a procedure. Li claims that at present it is impossible to do the necessary repairs on damaged spinal nerves. The transplant also has to deal with a conjunction of neurons, blood vessels and muscles.

There are also ethical issues to deal with, such as the identities of patients. “Who will the person be after receiving the body of another?” pointed out Li Wei.

Like other doctors, Dr P Sarat Chandra, professor of AIIMS neurosurgery, also feels that head transplant in the present situation seems impossible. But he says some ideas seem crazy at first but ultimately work out, and the head transplant might also become possible some day. “At present there is no known technology that can join the central nervous system. Spinal cord has two parts — an outer covering and a cord inside. Joining the cord is going to be a big issue. I would say it is not a challenge but there are a lot of question marks,” he said.

Dr Chandra adds, “Even if the surgery is successful and the patient is able to get off life support system, how long will he survive and will he regain the function of his hands and legs? The sense in the head may happen but the question is of the body.”

“If the patient, after getting the head, is able to get off the ventilator and lives for just four or five months, then also it will be a huge success as then further research will be done and more progress will be seen in future. But if the patient survives the period like any normal human being, then it won’t be less than a miracle, but I don’t expect that. However, even if it doesn’t work, it means we have started looking in that direction.”

The Allogeneic Head and Body Reconstruction surgery will be conducted on Valery Spiridonov. Spiridonov, a computer scientist from Russia suffering from muscular dystrophy, has agreed to become the first patient to undergo the surgery. The young man was diagnosed with a genetic muscle-wasting condition called Werdnig-Hoffman disease at an early age. Despite knowing the extreme risks of undergoing such a procedure, he has agreed as he is eager for a new, functioning body.

Speaking publicly about his decision, Valery was quoted as saying: “When I realised that I could participate in something really big and important, I had no doubt left in my mind and started to work in this direction... The only thing I feel is the sense of pleasant impatience, like I have been preparing for something important all my life and it is starting to happen.”

However, Xiaoping has stressed that the project is still at least two years away. It is crucial to assure proper funding and backing of technology and expert teams. “It is impossible to give an exact date as the conditions are not yet ready for clinical trials for the operation,” he said.

According to reports, the procedure would take 100 surgeons 36 hours, and would cost around $12.6 million.

According to a news report by AFP, in China, many do not donate organs due to belief in reincarnation, and has reached an impasse with its simultaneously high demand for and chronic shortages of organs — a void that death row inmates have controversially filled.

Contrary to these problems, China hugely supports the pathbreaking surgery. “China wants to do it because they want to win the Nobel Prize,” says Canavero. They want to prove themselves as a scientific powerhouse. So it’s the new space race.

Xiaoping says, “Right now, China wants to go to the top.” He adds that if there is a great benefit in research, China will put resources into it. If successful, the procedure would bring significant changes to humankind, and save patients whose bodies are in critical condition, he adds.

“If a man with an aging body can replace his body with a young and healthy body, his aging brain will become younger with the new body, meaning longer life for the man,” he said.

Canavero has said the procedure (head anastomosis venture) might be feasible — with improved technology and accurate ability to keep neural tissue perfused — before the end of 2017, which is when he and his team intend to perform the procedure either in the US or China.

Amid all these speculations, Spiridonov seems composed.

According to Canavero’s calculations, if everything goes according to the plan, two years is the timeframe needed to verify all scientific calculations and plan the procedure’s details. “It isn’t a race. No doubt, the surgery will be done once the doctor and the experts are 99 per cent sure of its success,” he said. 

Well for now we can only wish the surgeons luck and hope that Spiridonov’s head gets a matching donor. Dr Chandra says this would be the most challenging thing — as in cases of organ donation, doctors can do trials, but in this case there is no time for trials — or else both the body and the head are going to get wasted and this surgery will stop for at least a few years.

Has India forgotten about the others in the 'Others' community?

The year 2015 has given the Indians many things to boast on. The most recent one is our age-old yoga becoming an international event and then entering the 2016 Guinese book of World records because of the massive turnout last week on 21^st June – The International Yoga Day. It is the first time that a trans gender stepping onto a Principal’s chair of a college and trans gender students getting enrolled into University of Delhi’s courses not under the categories of male or female but as ‘Others’. 

The Narendra Modi’s government has indeed been able to add new chapters to our history books. In this year the trans genders got their separate identity as ‘Others’ in academic field that will surely help them to come over the social stigma that they have to face daily. However, Modi seem to have forgotten to put the other groups who comprise the LGBT group.

While the Modi’s government have got enough achievements to put in their next election manifesto to win the next election, however,some groups of Indian citizens -the lesbians and Gay communities - have nothing to feel happy. They remain to their negligible status and recognition.

We have just heard of ‘corrective rape’ on the lesbians and gay people - which was coined in South Africa –in Hyderabad after a shocking revelation by an NGO that this act has found its way to India.

What is Corrective Rape?

It is a case whereinrape is used as a tool to correct the sexual orientation of lesbian and gay people with the objective of getting them to toe the societal norms. It is a practise to rape the gays and lesbian to ‘cure’ them of their sexual orientation.

The term was coined in S. Africa where such crimes are rampant. This criminal act has mostly, according to various research reports, been reported in five countries – Thailand, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, Uganda and South Africa.  Often it is the family members of the victim who facilitate it.

As per the statistics of Crisis intervention team of LGBT Collective in Telangana, there have been 15 instances of 'corrective rapes' that have been reported in the group in the last five years. "We are sure there are many more cases, but they go unreported, says VyjayantiMogli, a member of crisis intervention. “We came across such cases not because they reported the rape, but because they sought help to flee their homes."

In most cases of corrective rape, the perpetrators are family members because of which the victims refrain from seeking legal recourse. "Victims find it traumatising to speak of their brothers/ cousins turning rapists and prefer to delete the incident from their memories and cut off ties with their families. Which is why such cases almost never get reported," Vyjayanti says.

Here parents request the youths of their relatives to have sex and 'straighten' the sexual orientation of their gay children, girls in most cases. They being parents want their children to become a ‘normal’ human like others. According to a report, a gay boy was forced to have sex with his mother to 'cure' their homosexuality.

What's more alarming about this dangerous practice is that as many as 15 cases have already been reported and many homosexuals are silently bearing the pain, fearing to report against their own parents. Those who approached the NGO through the city based LGBT communities preferred to run away from their homes and take shelter with their partners.

Film on corrective rape

Hyderabadi filmmaker DeepthiTadanki's upcoming film, Satyavati deals with the subject of corrective rape. The film is based on some "shocking real life instances" that took place in Bangalore. She said,"When I was researching on this subject for my film, I came across two gut wrenching stories of corrective rape — one, where a gay girl was raped by her cousin so that she could be "cured" of homosexuality; and another, where family members forced a gay boy to have sex with his mother, in a bid to turn him 'straight'. I tried reaching out to these victims, but they refused to talk".

Explaining how difficult it is to find statistics for a topic so taboo, Deepthi says, "I wrote to NGOs who work with victims of such hate crimes seeking help with statistics. but to my surprise, not one organisation got back. Many rapes go unreported in India, and it will take years before something like corrective rape even gets talked about. That's why I wanted to tell this story. I knew it is a sensitive subject, something that has never been dealt with before. I didn't even have any statistics, but I had the conviction."

Satyavati talks about a lesbian couple and their straight friend. "When the family members of the 'straight' girl visits her, they doubt that she is in an 'unnatural' relationship with one of the lesbian girls. And so, they plot a 'corrective rape' on their daughter as well as the gay girl," reveals the 27-year-old Guntur native, who has turned to crowdsourcing to raise funds for the film. "Forty per cent of the film is now complete, but I am facing a financial crunch. I have been trying to crowd source money to complete the rest of the film," she says, adding, "While lot of people said 'kudos' and 'hats off', very few are willing to make monetary contribution. But I won't give up because a discussion on corrective rape needs to be initiated."

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Recently a well-known online fashion portal, Myntra came up with an advertisement titled – The Visit -featuring two lesbians. ‘The Visit ‘ an advertisement though promoting the brand Anouk showed the beautiful and pure love shared between a lesbian couple. The two lovers supported each other as they were going along the dark road, innocently giving utterance to words of happiness which rose to their lips like the refrain from a forgotten song. 

The advertisement showing a couple preparing to meet their parents has gone viral and has become the country’s latest social media phenomenon.

The advert was made for an ethnic wear collection for a leading fashion portal. It got over 2 lakh hits on YouTube in over 10 days.Ethnic wear brand Anouk, retailed on fashion portal Myntra, released India’s first lesbian ad. “The ad has got 3 million views across social media like Facebook, YouTube etc,” says Manish Aggarwal, VP (marketing) at Myntra Fashion which is promoting the ad the visit - BOLD IS BEAUTIFUL.

So India may feel proud of having trans gender students under the special category and even a trans gender principal. However, the smiles on the faces of the lesbians and Gay group will only come when the Supreme court recognizes them and government makes advertisements to make people aware (like they did to eradicate polio and myths about HIV) that – People who are Gay and Lesbian deserve to be treated as what they are and they are also part of our community. But for them it is ‘Dilliabhibahaut door’.

Are our B-town celebrities biased?

Bollywood movies have a history of showing villain getting killed by the hero. These movies have given birth to immense faith on the hero coming to save the country and people. The fan followers not only copy the style of their favourite heroes but also believe that their heroes can never do anything wrong. The movie when Tere Naam and Ghajni released the hair salons did a good business in styling their client’s hair in the same way.

In Kolkata, Sanjay Austa, one of the fans of Amitabh Bachchan, has even built “Amitabh Bachchan temple”. He bought a chair from the set of one of Bachchan’s movies. The shoes that Amitabh wore in one of his movie sits on the chair (just like in Ramayana Bharat placed his elder brother Ram’s paduka on the throne). There is also a portrait of the superstar on the chair. Sanjay and his son worship Amitabh Bachchan in this temple. The yellow shawl has ‘Jai Shree Amitabh’ emblazoned on it. Sanjay has even prepared a special prayer or ‘Amitabh Chalisa’ for Big B. He says Amitabh is a living breathing god in their midst.

While stardom is a fickle kingdom wherein not many stars survive for a long period of time, yet the stardom of a handful of them remain unchanged. They are the idol of many Indian households and dialogues of their films are quoted again and again. Amongst them feature the Big B – Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and not to forget our Sallu Bhai aka Salman Khan. However, over the years these superstars have indeed fallen into bad light like when Shah Rukh Khan got into the controversy of accusing and manhandling a security guard in Wankhede stadium.

The year 2015 has made the Bollywood celebrities burn the midnight oil because of Salman Khan’s hit and run case. As the day of final verdict by the lower court neared dua for Salman went up. A wait of about 13 years Salman Khan got 5 year jail term in the famous hit and run case and soon the fan followers and the Bollywood celebrities took up the task of protesting and praying for his release.

Some Bollywood stars like SRK, David Dhawan and Sajid Nadiadwala rushed to back the actor. Upon sentencing, actor Arjun Kapoor tweeted: “It doesn’t matter what anyone or any court says he doesn’t deserve this at any level.” Member of Parliament and former actress Hema Malini said: “I am feeling bad about it. I am very sad. My sympathies are with Salman. I will pray that he gets less punishment.” Another MP and Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo said, “Heart-wrenching, but law takes its course. But in the past judges reduced punishment keeping in mind humanitarian work”.

Actor Sonakshi Sinha said it was “terrible news”. “Don’t know what to say except that will stand by [Khan] no matter what. He’s a good man and no one can take that away from him,” she tweeted. Parineeti Chopra added: “Hurts to think of what could happen. We will always be with you. Hope the judge sees the beauty of a human being that Salman Khan is.”The film industry supports him not only as a friend but like a family member.

After hundreds of tweets and prayers for Khan, god finally answered the prayers with Bombay High Court suspending the order of the lower court. To this, like many other actors, Daisy Shah, co-actor of Movie Jai Ho, tweeted “The kindness of a man has been judged by the god himself... Good deeds never go in vain. Thank you 1 n all for the prayers n love.”

In this case the thing that popped up regularly or rather it was mentioned frequently was his setting up of NGO - Being Human - and through it helping many underprivileged children. Being Human was intiated by Salman Khan to support the underprivileged by giving portion of sales of its branded T-shirts and other products online. The Foundation focuses on two things – Education and Healthcare.

However, it will be wrong to say that all actors supported him while overlooking his hit and run case. It is because Alia Bhatt was the only one who said that Salman was wrong and how she felt sad to know that “their own” is punished. “It hurts when your own are punished, even if they are in the wrong. We love you and are standing by you,” she tweeted.

The confusion between Salman the superstar and Salman the citizen gets reflected when his fans overlook the hit and run case. His supporters defended him vehemently by either shifting the blame for the accident to government for failing to help homeless people or citing the Salman’s contribution in Being Human. Salman’s work for his Being Human charity is offered by his followers and flatterers as if it were some sort of penance for youthful misdemeanours (he was 37 at the time of the accident). Though Khan’s work for underprivileged children cannot be denied but after the hit and run case he seems to be a part of those people who do illegitimate things and then visits Vaishno Devi or holds Jagaran as a part of their penance to god.

However, amidst all these tweets and debates people seem to have forgotten the victims and their economic conditions. Many speculate that this 13-year-long case can easily get stretched to 13 more years to come. After all these years those victims had to live their life in poverty while simultaneously fighting case against Salman Khan. And here is the irony – the owner of Being Human and a ‘bhai’ of all people not once thought to support those victims. 

A topic full of useless controversies

The fuss that has been going in the country since the release of “India’s Daughter” surpasses the controversy that Indian cinema has caused till date. Some years back the Hollywood film, Slumdog Millionaire, had created quite a stir among the Indian audiences. The reasons behind the stir in both of these cases remain confusing. In the case of Slumdog millionaire people saw the movie as a move to show India in bad light while ‘India’s daughter’ documentary is being seen as the thoughts of every ‘male’ citizen of India only voiced by Mukesh Singh and the lawyers. But is it true? Has the movie really been made to show the world that Indian men think woman only to fulfil their sexual needs?

On December 16, 2013 a para-medical student was brutally gang raped while her friend was beaten. This rape sparked the anger that had been boiling since years in the hearts of all Indian women. From the very next day of this gruesome rape incident, people of every sex - who never met each other in any social networking group or otherwise - unitedly came up on streets voicing against a common agenda.

Be it college students, working women or housewives, thousands of protesters poured onto the streets like never before to protest against the failure of state and central government to provide adequate security to women. This rage that Indian documentary-makers should have immediately taken up as their next topic was instead taken up by a British film-maker. So another question arises – is the debate that’s going on is because a foreign film-maker has taken up?

Everyday a minimum of two or three stories of rape comes up in newspaper while ten go undiscovered. Be it a girl of 5 year old or a lady of 50 year old; girl wearing jeans or lady wearing sari no one is barred from the thoughts of rapists. In an interview of Leslee Udwin, the author of this simple documentary film says it was not the horror of the rape but the extraordinary eruption on the streets for over a month that inspired her to make the film. The unprecedented number of ordinary men and women, day after day, faced a ferocious government crackdown that included teargas, baton charges and water cannon.

On the name “India’s Daughter”, she comments “Yes, but Nirbhaya was called India's Daughter by the press here, and we are not allowed to name her in India. Abroad, we are naming her because her father released her name and her name is in Wikipedia. But we could not call it by her name here. And we could not call it just Nirbhaya because what would an international audience have made of that? They cannot even pronounce it, let alone what it means.

She says “This is a global problem because every society is sick with patriarchy. Of course, that is a major problem here, but also the world over. There is a patriarchal culture all over the world, and that is what we want to show.”

Talking of the documentary, in one way it brought with itself the deep psychology of some percentage of men who rushed to defend themselves. One such case is the release of ‘United Kingdom’s Daughter’ by video-maker, Harvinder Singh in response to the documentary to show how sexual violence is a universal problem and not unique to India. The men who call themselves educated and modern could not see the movie what sick mentality the rapists and their defence lawyers had been breeding. Well the rapists are uneducated but what about the lawyers.

One of the rapists' defence attorneys, M.L. Sharma, had said “You are talking of friend as a man and woman….sorry that doesn’t have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture there is no place for a woman. A woman means I immediately put the sex in his eyes.”  The other defence lawyer, A.P. Singh without any hesitation even added, "If my daughter or sister engaged in premarital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight."

The rapist—Mukesh Singh—told Udwin that while Jyoti was "being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her,' and only hit the boy. ... A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. … Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes."

In an interview of Udwin, she says the motive of mentioning the views of the rapists an especially the lawyers were bot voicing their opinions but the opinions of the society. They were talking about aspects of a society and women in a particular way. She says, “They are not just saying 'she was out on the streets at a particular time, she was asking for it'. They are saying 'a woman is a flower, a man is thorn. A woman needs protection'."

While pondering on the pshychology of these people there is also a video of teacher of Jyoti Singh, Satendra who also is a male. What he says is completely opposite. He has put forward questions like - What was the crime of Jyoti? That she went out at night? Is it a crime to go out for a movie with a friend?

Again it was a male who despite the ban on this movie by the government took up the challenge to educate more and more women the psych of those rapists. Ketan Dixit an activist did not fear the jail and went on to show the movie to the people of the Ravidas camp where those rapists lived. He received immense response though he is saddened of the fact that the families of those rapists were not present at that moment. Now, it is another male Raghul Sudeesh, a lawyer who has filed a petition with two lakh signatures to the Bar Council to debar M.L. Sharma and A.P.Singh. Recently, while these two lawyers have sought a chance to let them voice their apology and correct their statements, the women lawyers have demanded barring of A.P Singh and M.L Sharma from Supreme Court.

Dr Maria Misra, writer and historian in Oxford university Keble College, comments that the idea of the gang rape was to send a message that woman are not to breach the boundary between men and woman to do with power. Even Dr Sandip Govil, jail psychiatrist of the rapists, says that there the main mental set-up is “It’s our right. We are in enjoyment mode….”

Here again my question gets repeated does the movie intend to show that maximum Indian men are all same and share the same mentality as those of the lawyers and rapists. Danny Cohen, BBC Director of Television in an interview had said "The purpose of including the interview with the perpetrator was to gain an insight into the mind-set of a rapist with a view to understanding the wider problem of rape and not just in India."

After the movie was banned by the Indian government, Leslee Udwin said, “India's Daughter was always designed to unleash a campaign that has global objectives. We must be keenly aware that all of us the world over … we all must hang our heads in shame until we correct this imbalance."