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:
“Men should not labor foolishly like brutes, but the brain and the body should always, or as much as possible, work and rest together, and then the work will be of such a kind that when the body is hungry the brain will be hungry also, and the same food will suffice for both; otherwise the food which repairs the waste energy of the overwrought body will oppress the sedentary brain, and the degenerate scholar will come to esteem all food vulgar, and all getting a living drudgery.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)