Since the first successful organ transplant in history, a kidney in 1954, this branch of medicine has advanced so much that a revolutionary procedure recently involved the transplantation of a penis and scrotum to a wounded soldier.
Earlier, a Frenchman became the first person to receive a second face transplant, as the first transplantation ended in failure, and the second made history by regrowing skin he had lost from over 95 percent of his body thanks to a sample he received from his twin brother.
>>>The First Human Head Transplant Scheduled for This Year, Madness or Science?
Transplants are no longer limited to vital organs: heart, liver, or lungs. Today, people can receive a new hand or even a uterus, but some organs should not be touched, at least for now. At the top of that list is the brain. The reasons are both technical and ethical, experts say.
“Everything related to the nervous system is the hardest to transplant because we do not have effective techniques for nerve regeneration. That is why brain and eye transplants are still beyond the reach of modern medicine,” explained transplant surgeon David Nasralla from the University of Oxford.
>>>Revolutionary Nanotechnology Heals Wounds and Regenerates Organs
There are ‘surgeons’ who allegedly plan to transplant a head, but the more serious ones say that the patient would, in all likelihood, die. Many do not believe it is even possible to connect the nerve tissues of two spinal cords.
Above all, brain transplantation raises disturbing moral questions, including the fundamental one: What makes a person? Only the brain? Such a patient would likely struggle with the concept of ‘human identity’, states an article recently published in the journal Surgical Neurology International.
>>>Timeline: 30 Years Since the First Heart Transplant
“Even the memories of what role the former body had in shaping the patient’s identity could be in potential conflict with the new, donated body,” wrote bioethicists Anto Cartolovni and Antonio Spagnolo. Similar questions have already been seen in cases of face and hand transplants. “This psychological confusion of a person can lead to serious mental health issues, even literal madness,” they added.
Given that there are never enough donated organs, using animal hearts, lungs, or livers to save human lives is the holy grail of medical science. “Attempts were made with xenotransplantations in the 1950s and 1960s, with chimpanzee kidneys, for example. But the organs were rejected within a few days. At that time, scientists could not break that barrier of how to transplant an organ from one species to another,” emphasizes Olivier Bastien from the French biomedical agency.
>>>The Fight for a Healthy Heart Also Benefits Brain Function
This is slowly changing as scientists understand how to modify genes that prompt the immune system to attack ‘intruders’ it perceives as a threat.
Now, research is focusing on modifying the genes of animal donors so that their organs can withstand the reaction of the human immune system, but at the same time, they must also prevent the transmission of animal diseases.
>>>EU Against Chronic Inflammatory Diseases – Croatian Scientists Part of Prestigious International Project ‘SYSCID’
Animal welfare must also be kept in mind. “To what extent do we need to undermine the animal immune system, potentially exposing them to diseases and suffering, just so we can harvest their organs?” Bastien questions.
Experts have few organs left that are technically impossible to transplant. Two are currently excluded for ethical reasons – testicles and ovaries. For example, if a recipient with new testicles becomes fertile, whose children are they, his or the donor’s?
