双语 | 世界首例人类“换头”手术在中国实施！真的成功了吗？【附调查】

The world's first human head transplant has allegedly been performed in China on a corpse in an 18 hour operation which successfully connected the spine, nerves and blood vessels of two people.

据称，在中国，世界第一例人类头部移植手术在一具遗体上完成，这场手术共历时18个小时，最终成功地将切断的脊椎、神经和血管重新连接起来。

The operation was carried out by a team led by Dr Xiaoping Ren of Harbin Medical University, China, who last year successfully grafted a head onto the body of a monkey.

这台手术由哈尔滨医科大学任晓平教授率领的团队完成，他本人曾在2016年成功进行了猴子换头手术。

▲任晓平教授

Italian Professor Sergio Canavero, Director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, who has been working with the team, said they would 'imminently' move onto a living human who was paralysed from the neck down.

共同参与此次手术的意大利都灵高级神经调节小组负责人塞尔吉奥·卡纳韦罗教授称，他们“很快”将对颈部以下全身瘫痪的病人进行类似的手术。

▲卡纳韦罗教授

He told The Telegraph that electrical stimulation of the nerves proved the operation on the corpse had been successful, and that the two people had been completely attached.

卡纳韦罗教授在接受《每日电讯报》采访时表示，对神经的电刺激证明遗体换头手术是成功的，目前移植的头部与新的身体已经完全结合在一起。

"Everyone said it was impossible, but the surgery was successful," Prof Canavero told a press conference in Venice.

近日在维也纳的新闻发布会上，卡纳韦罗教授说道：“人们都说这是不可能的，但手术很成功。”

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=z05070x68vy&width=500&height=375&auto=0▲维也纳新闻发布会现场

"We have entered an age where we will take our destiny back in our hands. The first human transplant on human cadavers has been done. A full head swap between brain dead organ donors is the next stage.

“我们已步入一个新时代，重新把命运掌握在人类自己手中。首例人类头部移植手术已在遗体上成功实施，下一步是在脑死亡器官捐献者之间进行全面的头部移植。”

Describing the surgery, Prof Canavero said the operation was split into two parts. In the first procedure, the blood supply of the donor body was attached to the brain of the recipient. Then the head was severed and the nerves and blood vessels attached to the new body using a biological glue known as PEG.

卡纳韦罗教授称，手术主要分为两部分，第一部分是连接受体头部与捐赠者身体之间的血液供应；第二部分是将头部切断，然后用一种名为聚乙二醇（PEG）的生物胶将受体头部的神经、血管与捐赠者的躯体相连接。

Prof Canavero said they would take great care to ensure the larynx nerves were not severed so that the patient would still speak with the same voice when they awoke.

卡纳韦罗教授表示，他们将非常小心，确保不会切断喉部神经，这样患者醒来后仍能用同样的声音说话。

“Undeniably this is huge,” he said. “We are wading into unchartered territory here. It's like going to the Moon. Apollo 11 was successful, so was Apollo 12, but then look what happened with Apollo 13.”

他说：“不可否认这是一项庞大的任务。我们正在涉足全新的领域，就像登月一样，阿波罗11号和12号取得了成功，而我们也不要忘记阿波罗13号发生了什么。（译者注：阿波罗13号虽然登月失败，但在发生事故后成功返航，被称为人类航天史上最伟大的奇迹）”

“They called me crazy, a lunatic, Frankenstein. But Frankenstein was a very ethical man by the way.”

“他们说我是疯狂的‘科学怪人’，但顺便提一下，‘科学怪人’也是很有伦理道德的。”

Prof Canavero shocked the world in 2015 when he said that he would be ready to transplant a human head within two years.

2015年卡纳韦罗教授称自己将在两年内为人类头颅移植做好准备，当时全世界为之震惊。

争议

尽管卡纳瓦罗教授表示这是为了缓解那些饱受病痛折磨的患者的做法，并不是开玩笑的事情，但还是在全球医学界引起巨大争议。

These “successful” procedures are anything but

这些手术根本算不上“成功”

Many of Canavero’s previous appearances in the media have been accompanied by claims of successful head transplant procedures. But, how are we defining “successful” here? Canavero’s definition seems to be extremely “generous” at best.

此前卡纳韦罗因成功实施换头术多次在媒体露面。不过我们该如何定义这里所说的“成功”？卡纳韦罗的定义似乎太过宽泛。

For instance, he recently claimed to have “successfully” performed a head transplant on a monkey. But did he? While the monkey head did apparently survive the procedure, it never regained consciousness, it was only kept alive for 20 hours for “ethical reasons” and there was no attempt made at connecting the spinal cord, so even if the monkey had survived long-term it would have been paralysed for life. So, it was a successful procedure, if you consider paralysis, lack of consciousness and a lifespan of less than a day as indicators of “success”.

举例来说，他最近宣布“成功”进行了猴子的头部移植。但他确实做到了吗？虽然猴子表面上得以存活，却一直没有重获意识，从伦理角度来说它只活了20个小时。连接脊髓的尝试并未实现，因此即使这只猴子能长期存活下去，也会终生瘫痪。所以说，如果你觉得瘫痪、意识缺失和活不过一天的寿命可以作为“成功”的标志，那这场手术就算成功了。

There was also his “successful” rat head transplant, which involved grafting a severed rat head onto a different rat, a living one that still had its head. Exactly how this counts as a “transplant” is anyone’s guess. It’s adding an appendage onto an otherwise healthy subject.

还有他“成功”进行的鼠头移植，将切下的鼠头移植到另一只老鼠身上，受体活鼠的头依然保留。为何称这种做法为“移植”不得而知，只不过是在另一个健康个体的身上增添了一个附加物。

And this recent successful human head transplant? It was on corpses! Any surgical procedure where the patients or subjects die before it even starts is really stretching the definition of “success” to breaking point. Maybe the procedure did make a good show of “attaching” the nerves and blood vessels on the broad scale, but, so what? That’s just the start of what’s required for a working bodily system. There’s still a way to go. You can weld two halves of different cars together and call it a success if you like, but if the moment you turn the key in the ignition the whole thing explodes, most would be hard pressed to back you up on your brilliance.

这次成功的人类换头又如何呢？居然是在尸体上进行的！一场还未开始病人就已死亡的外科手术真的是把“成功”的定义拓展到了极致，或许这场手术从广义上讲很好地展示了“连接”神经和血管的技术，可那又怎样？这仅是机体运转的先决条件，还有很多后续工作要做。你可以把两个来自不同汽车的部分焊接在一起，谓之成功，但如果你发动引擎的瞬间整个作品发生爆炸，恐怕大多数人将难以认同你的才华。

Perhaps the techniques used to preserve the heads and attach them have some scientific value, but it’s still a far cry from the idea of someone wandering around with a fully functional body that isn’t the one they were born with.

也许保存头部和连接头部的技术具有一定的科学价值，但是这离一个人能够依靠功能完善的身体而非自己本身的身体进行随意走动这个想法，还是相距甚远的。

The crucial details are strangely overlooked

被莫名忽视掉的关键细节

The human body is not modular. You can’t swap bits around like you would Lego blocks, take a brick from castle and put it onto a pirate ship and have it work fine. There are copious obstacles to contend with when linking a head to body, even when they’re the same person’s. Doctors have, in recent years, “reattached” a severely damaged spinal cord in a young child, but the key-word is “damaged”, not “completely severed”; there’s enough connection still to work with, to repair and reinforce. And this is with a young child, with a still-developing nervous system better able to compensate. Even taking all this into account, and the advanced state of modern medicine, the successful procedure was considered borderline miraculous.

人体并不是由模块组装而成的。你不能像玩乐高一样把身体部位进行互换，就像从城堡上拿下一块积木换到一艘海盗船上一样并无大碍。把头连接到身体上时需要处理很多障碍，即使它们属于同一个人。最近几年，有医生曾将一个幼儿严重损坏的脊椎“重新接上”了，但重要的是，这个脊椎是“受损的”，而不是“完全断掉的”；在这种情况下，依然要做大量的处理、修复和加固工作才能实现充分连接。而且，这位患者是个幼儿，神经系统尚在发育，有助于更好地康复。即使将所有这些以及现代医学的先进水平都考虑在内，这项手术的成功仍被认为是一种边缘奇迹。

So, to attach a completely severed spinal cord, a fully developed adult one, onto a different one, one that’s maybe been dead for days? That’s, what, at least four further miracles required? And that’s not to take into account immune rejection, the fact that we don’t really know how to “fix” damaged nerves yet (let alone connect two unfamiliar halves) and the issue that everyone’s brain develops in tune with their body. The latter point means the “interface” between the two is relatively unique.

那么，能把一个完全断掉的、完全发育成熟的脊髓连接到一个不同的、可能已经死了几天的脊髓上？那，至少还需要四个奇迹？这还没把免疫排斥考虑在内，事实上我们还不知道如何“修复”受损的神经（更不用说连接两个来自不同躯体的部位），以及每个人的大脑都与他们的身体同步发育的问题。后者意味着两者之间的“接触面”是相对独特的。

We don’t know for certain of course, because nobody has ever tried it. Canavero seems convinced he can do it, but thus far he’s offered no feasible explanation or science for his claims to be able to overcome these hurdles.

当然我们也无法确定结果如何，因为从来没有人尝试过。卡纳韦罗似乎相信他能做到，但到目前为止，他对于自己声称能够克服这些障碍还没有提供可行的解释或科学依据。

“换头手术”成功的消息在国内也引发了巨大争议↓

首都医科大学宣武医院功能神经外科副主任胡永生教授指出，即使将来头颅移植在科学技术层面上完全可行了，随之而来的伦理问题如何解决？头颅移植后“你”到底是谁？他认为，目前对于头颅移植手术一定要保持头脑清醒，避免浮躁浮夸，科学探索有意义，过度宣传无益处。

参与手术的任晓平教授表示，人类的医学发展史就是在一个个争议中发展过来的，1953年第一例肾脏移植手术，当时学术界、社会上都批评不应该做，人应该正常死亡，旁人不能改变这个历程。第一例心脏移植也如此，甚至都有民众递诉状，认为医生不合理、不合法、大逆不道。20年前他到美国参与的手移植手术去年也被列入了美国医保法案。他说，新事物都会有争议，有争议才会有完善。

欢迎点击右下角“写留言”发表你对“换头手术”的看法。

编译：Yee君

推荐阅读