A controversial operation to transplant the whole head of a monkey onto a different body has proved a partial success.

The scientist behind it wants to do the same thing to humans, but other members of the scientific community have condemned the experiments as "grotesque".

Professor Robert White, from Cleveland Ohio, transplanted a whole monkey's head onto another monkey's body, and the animal survived for some time after the operation.

The professor told the BBC's Today programme how he believes the operation is the next step in the transplant world.

And he raised the possibility that it could be used to treat people paralysed and unable to use their limbs, and whose bodies, rather than their brains, were diseased.



This is medical technology run completely mad

Professor Stephen Rose,

Open University