Organ transplants have come a long way but brains, eyes and testes are still off-limits
An Italian-Chinese surgical duo recently set the science world aflutter by announcing they planned to remove a person’s head and attach it to a decapitated donor body
Transplants are no longer limited to the vital organs: heart, liver, or lungs. Nowadays, people can get a new hand … or even a uterus. But some organs remain off-limits. For now.
Topping the list, brain transplants are a long way off, for both technical and ethical reasons, experts say.
“The most challenging organ to transplant is anything related to the nervous system, as we do not have effective techniques for nerve growth/regeneration,” explained transplant surgeon David Nasralla, of the University of Oxford. “For this reason, eye and brain transplants are currently beyond the scope of modern medicine.”
Nerves carry messages through the body in the form of electrochemical pulses flitting between the brain and spinal cord, muscles and other organs.