A man who suffers from a rare muscle wasting disease is to become the first person in the world to have a head transplant - with his head being transplanted onto the body of a donor.

Valery Spiridonov suffers from the rare genetic Werdnig-Hoffman disease - and will opt for the pioneering operation as he has 'no other choice'.

Spiridonov has admitted that the prospect of going through with the operation, scheduled for 2017, is terrifying. "I am afraid,” he said. “But what people don't understand is that I don't really have many choices.

"If I don't try this out my fate will be very sad. With every year my situation is getting worse."

Substantial risks

Spiridonov, from the western Russian city of Vladimir, said that, while he realised there were substantial risks, he was prepared to sacrifice his life for science in the hope that enough would be learned to help future full body transplant patients.

Italian Dr Sergio Canavero will be the first surgeon in the world to transplant a human head onto a donor body.

Spiridonov, a 30-year-old computer scientist, added that he still has some requirements from the surgery.

He said: "I wouldn't want to have my head transplanted onto the body of a woman. When I wake up I still want to be a man."

A month in a coma

Spiridonov became an IT professional because he wanted to have a job that he could work in remotely and, despite his condition, he can still use his hands, and is able to make complicated 3D models of molecules.

"Because I spend a lot of time on the internet I found out about the concept of full body transplants - and contacted the doctor who is really the pioneer in this sort of work,” he explained.

“The operation is planned for 2017 - with a month in a coma, and a year for recovery. To be honest, me and my parents never gave up on the idea of a cure. We believe it will happen, and I think this is my big chance.

"The doctor told me that he had been waiting for some time for someone like me, and was convinced that I was the right partner. And I am happy to volunteer for it. I realise there are risks, but I take all the risks onto myself."

An impossible fantasy?

The Frankenstein-like procedure has some medical precedent, as it was recently reported that Chinese scientists had carried out a head transplant on a mouse. But it remains controversial - and most medical experts believe it is still an impossible fantasy.

In 1954, a soviet surgeon, Vladimir Demikhov, made 20 two-headed dogs, who lived for under a month, until his works were stopped.

Not everybody in the medical community has rubbished the idea of a full body transplant. Alexandr Javoronov, the chief of nano-bio research at a Russian institute quoted in local media, said that it will be the most complicated transplant ever. He added that, at the current level of technology, it was possible - but that the patient was not likely to live for long.

"The main problem is that such a life won’t be long, under a month, because of the auto-immune processes,” said Javoronov. “In this case, the drugs won’t keep alive the body for a long time."