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The Frankensteinian notion of head — or, more accurately, body — transplants moved closer to reality Friday with the announcement that the first head swap has been carried out on human corpses.

The next step, said Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero, is a head transplant between two brain-dead organ donors.

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Canavero announced at a press conference in Vienna on Friday that a surgical team led by his collaborator in China, Xiaoping Ren, had “successfully” transferred a head from one human cadaver to another. The maverick surgeon said details of the surgery, led by a team from Harbin Medical University in China, would be released within days by a surgical journal.

After experimenting on mice, rats, dogs and primates, the first “full rehearsal” on a human body has taken place, Canavero announced with his signature theatrical flair.

“The first human transplant on human cadavers has been done,” he said. “A full head swap between brain dead organ donors is the next stage,” he said, adding that an operation on a live human being will be imminent.