A brain transplant or whole-body transplant is a hypothetical operation in which the brain of one organism is transplanted into the body of another. It is a procedure distinct from head transplantation, which involves transferring the entire head to a new body, as opposed to the brain only. Theoretically, a person with advanced organ failure could be given a new and functional body while keeping their own personality and memories.
Historically, brain transplants have not been feasible and were widely regarded as impossible. Today, given progress in organ transplant and human cloning research, many scientists hold that brain transplants are theoretically possible and likely to be feasible in the future.
Brain transplants and similar concepts have been explored in various forms of fiction.
Read more about Brain Transplant: Existing Challenges, Partial Brain Transplant, Brain Transplants in Popular Culture, Similar Concepts
Famous quotes containing the word brain:
“Progress celebrates Pyrrhic victories over nature. Progress makes purses out of human skin. When people were traveling in mail coaches, the world got ahead better than it does now that salesmen fly through the air. What good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way? How will the heirs of this age be taught the most basic motions that are necessary to activate the most complicated machines? Nature can rely on progress; it will avenge it for the outrage it has perpetrated on it.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)