The Frankenstein Monkey
What Hath God Wrought?

By Ryan A. Barrett

The quest for immortality (or at least for a few more years in this plain of reality) has prompted people to do some crazy things. Thankfully, most efforts at extending life are thwarted by the normal deterioration of the body. But what if we could just, like, take one brain and put it in another body, or in a robot, or in a jar with the eyeballs still attached. Soviet Doctor Sergei S. Bryukhonenko was probably thinking something along these lines when, in 1940, he decided to kill a dog, sever its head and pump oxygenated blood to its brain to see what would happen. The head lived (really, it was fine), responding to stimulus of light, sound, smell and touch, and showing signs of consciousness.

The success of this experiment soon motivated other scientists to create their own Frankenstein creatures, each trying to outmatch their predecessors and thereby gain some serious cred. Next up was another Soviet Doctor, Vladimir Demikhov, who in 1954 grafted the head and front legs of a puppy onto the neck of a full grown dog to create a dog/puppy hydra. The puppy’s brain was kept alive by diverted blood pumped from the heart of the full-grown dog. Both heads acted independently, and the puppy appeared to be fully conscious. It could even eat and drink, though its esophageal tube was just an unconnected stump so the food kind of got everywhere. Fortunately, despite repeating his experiment 21 times, Demikhov could never get his creatures to live longer than a month.

Then, in 1959, China declared that its scientists had successfully transplanted the head of one dog onto the body of another, allowing it to live indefinitely with a new but paralyzed body. While this claim remains unconfirmed, the U.S. could no longer let the Reds dominate the blossoming scientific arena of keeping severed heads alive. Doctor Robert J. White stepped up to the plate with a severed head that would top all the rest. White thought, “screw dogs, what about monkeys?” And in that thought a revolution was born.

In 1963, White and his team of young-gun American scientists did it. They chopped off a monkey’s head and sewed it on to another monkey’s body. Not only did the monkey live, it was a rambunctious fellow, attempting to bite the fingers of scientists if they strayed too close to its mouth. Though this first monkey lived only eight days, the procedure was soon refined to a point where monkey heads could live on indefinitely.

With this dazzling accomplishment under his belt, Dr. White soon became the poster-child for the Frankenstein movement in medicine, forming a personal friendship with Pope John Paul II and becoming an advisor on bioethics to the Catholic Church.
Admittedly, most people think he’s fucking crazy, and this may be the sole reason that no attempts have been made at the elusive human head transplant. Still, some scientists estimate that given the proper resources it could happen within the year.

Aside from the obvious moral issues surrounding human head transplants, there are practical obstacles to Dr. White’s research. For instance, it is not yet possible to connect the nerves from the spinal cord to the brain. Any transplanted head would be paralyzed: a mere leech drawing sustenance from a body that does not belong to it. Dr. Steven Rose, Director of brain and behavioral research at the Open University calls the research “scientifically misleading, technically irrelevant and scientifically irrelevant, and apart from anything else a grotesque breach of any ethical consideration.”

White wishes society would be more open-minded about chopping off heads and reattaching them to other things. “It sounds Frankensteinian,” he says, “it sounds too far out, But we've got to prepare people for the 21st century.” Well, the filthy future is upon us, and if you’ve ever thought “man it would be cool if I could take my brain and stick it in a helicopter,” you may well get your chance.

Sources: news.bbc.co.uk; clevescene.com; time.com; Experiments in the Revival of Organisms