r/books • u/b_schillace AMA Author • Mar 02 '21
ama 2pm I am Brandy Schillace, author of MR. HUMBLE AND DR. BUTCHER, a book about the first successful head transplant by a surgeon who wanted to transplant the human soul. AMA!
In the early days of the Cold War, while surgeons on either side of the Iron Curtain competed for transplantation firsts, an American neurosurgeon asked: Why not transplant the brain? I’m a PhD historian as well as an editor for BMJ’s Medical Humanities Journal, this book began with a shoebox and a peculiar invitation, it took me on a journey half-way around the world and into one of the strangest of forgotten histories. Frank Spotnitz, producer of the X-Files, called it “even more dark and twisted than the X-Files case it inspired,” and I’m here on Reddit AMA to answer your questions.
Proof: /img/dhr6crxedoj61.jpg
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u/made_on_short_notice Mar 02 '21
What was in the shoebox? And what did you find on your journey halfway round the world?
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
Hello! Great question--the shoebox was presented to me by a neurosurgeon--and inside was the research notebook of Dr. White. It was speckled with little rust spots, probably mouse blood, and was all about isolating a mouse brain... one of the first steps towards his later work! And I traveled all the way to Moscow to find out more about his rival, who was working with dogs (and created a two-headed one)
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u/made_on_short_notice Mar 02 '21
What was the purpose of making a two-headed dog?
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u/itsartsyish Mar 02 '21
Do you think that someone eventually will find a way to transplant a human brain? Or does it seem to have challenges that won't be able to be overcome?
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
Strange, if you want to transplant it inside the head, we have the technical expertise to re-plumb the blood supply. But we still would have no way of reattaching the spinal cord (though there is a lot of research about this, and some progress being made out there with stem cells or even electrical implants to jump the gap). The other issue of course is rejection of the tissue you implant--just as with other organs, except this time it's a whole body of organs. The challenges are so great that most feel it is not where funding out to be going. But then again, there are always a few out there... Sergio Canavero still claims that "one day" we will be able to regrow spines, and even clone our bodies to use as spare parts. At the moment, that is still the realm of science fiction, though!
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u/itsartsyish Mar 02 '21
Cloning the body begs the question of whether it would be ensouled as well.
Which brings us back to ethics.
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u/itsartsyish Mar 02 '21
Am I right that Dr. White kept this line of experimentation a secret from his colleagues/friends? Was he talking with people about the ethics of it?
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
He did not keep it secret, believe it or not! Some of what the book talks about is how much has changed in terms of how we do science (ethically) since the 50s. A great deal of what White did that hadn't really raised eyebrows in early experiments began to seem gruesome and even unethical as time went on. Animal rights, for one. But even some of his scientific colleagues were much less keen on these experiments over time. Dr. Silver (mentioned in the book) speaks against the experiments entirely.
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u/itsartsyish Mar 02 '21
What was the peculiar invitation?
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
A neurosurgeon friend of mine called me one day while I was out thrift-store shopping. As I was perusing used blazers, he asked 'had I seen the piece on CBS news about head transplant?" (I had not!) Would I like to stop by his office? (why not?) So off I go--and on arrival he shuts the door and then pulls out a shoe box. And frankly with that sort of intro I wasn't sure what was going to be IN there... it was the blood-speckled notebook (not a brain). But it was ABOUT brains, how to remove them, and then keep them alive OUTSIDE their bodies.
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
He also discovered that the brain inside the dog... sorry, that came out wrong. The disembodied brain inside the other dog, when stimulated, responded. They did this by hooking up electrodes and measuring its output when they, for instance, rang a bell. A very different kind of Pavlov's dog experiment, no?
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
Thanks to all who came to ask questions!
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u/Papa_Raj Mar 02 '21
This was the most interesting thing I'll read all week. Thanks for the amazing answers!
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
Thank you! It was certainly very interesting to research. Imagine my surprise as I discovered all this was actually true and not fiction??
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u/yourwildthoughts Mar 02 '21
if you have read the princess bride please let me know the answer to these questions i didn’t read the book so help a homie out on her project. what was westley justice and why did he do what he did? and what did he do ?
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u/itsartsyish Mar 02 '21
honestly have to admit I'm shocked I haven't heard anything about any of this before. it's fascinating.
how long had people been trying before the successful dogs in 1971?
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u/b_schillace Mar 02 '21
In 1971, it was monkeys (Dr. White's head transplant) but! His rival, Vladimir Demikhov in the then-Soviet Union had been working on dogs. He had never managed to preform a head transplant, but he did attach the head and fore-limbs of a puppy to an adult dog, effectively created a two-headed dog. They called the first one Cerberus. Demikhov has been working on these surgeries in the 60s.
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u/made_on_short_notice Mar 02 '21
Were you able to visit the labs where this was all done?
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '21
When did the first successful head transplant occur? Who was the subject(s)?