Brain transplant  

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A brain transplant or whole-body transplant is a hypothetical operation in which the brain of one organism is transplanted into the body of another. It is a procedure distinct from head transplantation, which involves transferring the entire head to a new body, as opposed to the brain only. Theoretically, a person with advanced organ failure could be given a new and functional body while keeping their own personality and memories.

Historically, brain transplants have not been feasible and were widely regarded as impossible. Today, given progress in organ transplant and human cloning research, many scientists hold that brain transplants are theoretically possible and likely to be feasible in the future.

Brain transplants and similar concepts have been explored in various forms of fiction.

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Brain transplants in popular culture

Transplantation of a human brain from one body into another has appeared on occasion in popular literature. The intended effect is most often either horrific or comedic, though many of these stories explore the medical, ethical, legal, and other issues that would surround the procedure.

  • In Alexander Belyayev's novel Hoiti-Toiti (1930) a scientist's brain is transplanted in the body of an elephant.
  • The transplant has been a common subject in horror films, most notably Frankenstein.
  • The Ultra-Humanite, one of the main villains opposing the Golden Age Superman and Justice Society of America, often "died" at the end of an encounter, only to have his surviving brain transplanted into a new (not always human) body by robots and/or henchmen.
  • The novel I Will Fear No Evil (1970) by Robert A. Heinlein features an elderly wealthy man who has his brain transplanted into the body of his deceased secretary.
  • In the 1970s manga Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka, Black Jack performs several brain transplants.
  • The movie The Thing with Two Heads (1972) featured a head transplant.
  • The Iranian comedy movie The Changed Man (Template:Lang-fa) (1998) featured a brain transplant.
  • The comedy movie The Man with Two Brains (1983), starring Steve Martin, revolves around brain transplantation.
  • Frederik Pohl's novel Black Star Rising (1985) features a character who has had parts of multiple brains grafted onto his, each conveying a separate personality.
  • The TV movie Who Is Julia? (1986) revolves also around brain transplantation.
  • In "The Defenseless Dead", a short story by Larry Niven, a criminal tries to hide by this means.
  • The novel Eva by Peter Dickinson focuses on the eponymous 14-year-old girl whose brain is transplanted into the body of a chimpanzee.
  • The premise for the TV series Now and Again (1999–2000) was the transplantation of lead character Michael Wiseman's brain into a genetically-engineered body to make him into a top-secret super-agent.
  • On the fictionalized version of the TV program Days of our Lives as shown on Friends, the dead body of Dr. Drake Ramoray, the character played by Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), has the brain of another character transplanted into it.
  • The novel My Brother's Keeper by Charles Sheffield is based on a partial brain transplant. Identical twins suffer major injuries in a crash, including damage to one side of each of their heads. One twin is dying from the loss of vital organs, so a surgeon saves part of his brain by using it to replace part of his brother's.
  • In the Cartoon Network movie Re-Animated (2006), the main character Jimmy Roberts (Dominic Janes) has to receive an emergency brain transplant because of a freak accident. He receives the brain of the late Milt Appleday (a parody of Walt Disney), and can see cartoon characters with his new brain.
  • In the novel Airhead (2008) by Meg Cabot, a normal girl gets a whole body transplant and thereafter lives as a supermodel.
  • In the film The Man with the Screaming Brain, a similar concept is explored by having two partial brains inhabiting the same body.
  • Wes Craven's book Fountain Society (1999) deals with this subject.
  • The Korean movie The Game (2007), directed by In-ho Yun, revolves around brain transplantation.
  • In Starsiege (1999), a mecha-style vehicle simulation game, Harabec is dead, and the brain of Victor Petresun is occupying his body.
  • In Skinned by Robin Wasserman, the protagonist, Lia, is fatally injured in a car accident, and "downloaded" into a new, synthetic body.
  • In The Simpsons episode Holidays of Future Passed, Lenny's brain is exchanged with Carl's.
  • In the game BioShock Infinite the Handyman is created from transplanting a human head and cardiac system into a steam-powered mechanical body, as a way to allow formerly disabled Columbian citizens to live productively.
  • In Surgeon Simulator 2013 one operation needing to be performed is a brain transplant.
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Similar concepts

The whole-body transplant is just one of several means of putting a consciousness into a new body that have been explored by both scientists and writers.

A similar procedure often found in science fiction is the transfer of one consciousness to another without moving the brain. This is found in many sources, most often a body swap between two characters of an ongoing television series; it occurs in the original Star Trek series twice, as well as Freaky Friday, Farscape, Stargate SG-1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Red Dwarf, Avatar; even in Archie comics. Since there is no movement of the brain(s), however, this is not quite the same as a whole-body transplant.

In the horror film The Skeleton Key, the protagonist, Caroline, discovers that the old couple she is looking after are poor Voodoo witch doctors who stole the bodies of two young, privileged children in their care using a ritual which allows a soul to swap bodies. Unfortunately the evil old couple also trick Caroline and their lawyer into the same procedure, and both end up stuck in old dying bodies unable to speak while the witch doctors walk off with their young bodies.

In Anne Rice's The Tale of the Body Thief, the vampire Lestat discovers a man, Raglan James, who can will himself into another person's body. Lestat demands that the procedure be used on him to allow him to be human once again, but soon finds that he has made an error and is forced to recapture James in his vampiric form so he can take his body back.

In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Emperor Palpatine is able to transfer his consciousness into clone bodies. In a sense, this allows him to return to life after the Battle of Endor, as well as other events where his current body dies. The clone bodies aren't quite as good as his original body and waste quickly due to the decaying power of the Dark Side of the Force. Upon realizing this, he tries to take over the body of Anakin Solo, but is unsuccessful and eventually meets his final end.

Similar in many ways to this is the idea of mind uploading, promoted by Marvin Minsky and others with a mechanistic view of natural intelligence and an optimistic outlook regarding artificial intelligence. It is also a goal of Raëlism, a small cult based in Florida, France, and Quebec. While the ultimate goal of transplanting is transfer of the brain to a new body optimized for it by genetics, proteomics, and/or other medical procedures, in uploading the brain itself moves nowhere and may even be physically destroyed or discarded; the goal is rather to duplicate the information patterns contained within the brain.

Another similar literary theme, though different from either procedure described above, is the transplanting of a human brain into an artificial, usually robotic, body. Examples of this include: Caprica; Fullmetal Alchemist; Ghost In The Shell; RoboCop; the DC Comics superhero Robotman; the Cybermen from the Doctor Who television series; the cymeks in the Legends of Dune series; or full-body cyborgs in many manga or works in the cyberpunk genre. In one episode of Star Trek, Spock's Brain is stolen and installed in a large computer-like structure; and in "I, Mudd" Uhura is offered immortality in an android body. The novel Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson features many central characters who undergo such transplants, and deals with the difficult decisions facing a human contemplating such a procedure.

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See also


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Brain transplant" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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