A Test of Morals: Surgical, Ethical, and Psychosocial Considerations in Human Head Transplantation

While transplanting human heads is not a new concept, the idea has largely been relegated to religious lore or as a plot device in science fiction. But now, a surgical plan to perform the complex procedure exists, and though most physicians question head transplantation’s medical veracity, bioethicists have challenged the surgery on moral grounds. A Test of Morals compiles and examines the ethical questions that dog those who advocate for conducting this most radical of medical proposals in order to determine if society should move forward and allow head transplantation to occur. Current bioethical principles stand in opposition to head transplantation, causing a conflict of values rarely seen in medicine.

L. Allen Furr is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Auburn University. He received his PhD from the Louisiana State University. His primary research area is the sociology of health and medicine, and his work has appeared in medical and nursing journals as well as in scholarly publications in sociology. In 2005, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at Punjabi University in India where he often returns to lecture and conduct research.