Part biography, part science novel, this book recounts Dr. Robert J. White’s foray into brain preservation. A neurosurgeon by training, he nevertheless conducted research on the side, and was particularly interested in finding ways to protect the brain from injury, pioneering techniques for inducing hypothermia (low temperature) on the central nervous system as a way to prevent damage during episodes of anoxia (lack of oxygen). If he was famous for this work, he was infamous for also dabbling in head transplants (or body transplants, it really depended on the point of view according to Dr. White), which he argued could be used to save a person with a healthy brain, but otherwise failing body. Acknowledging the ethical conundrums this procedure created (one obvious caveat being that transplanting a head required severing the spinal cord at the neck thus creating total body paralysis), he nevertheless thought it worthwhile for certain patients (like quadriplegics) as he firmly believed that the “essence” of the person (what some might call the soul or spirit) resided exclusively in the brain.
This book primarily focuses on the head transplant work, which was tested and perfected in animal models (but never actually performed on humans), and describes the subsequent social and scientific response, as well as moral implications of creating a Frankensteinian human. A fascinating and macabre tale, this book is worth reading, if not for its shock value, definitely for its thought-provoking themes. The one blemish on an otherwise clear and engaging narrative is the occasional lack of scientific accuracy, which will be apparent to any student of the life sciences, and which can be irritating. It does not help that the first error appears in the very first sentence of the book: “The brain: three pounds of gelatinous convolutions and a hundred billion nerves…” [Italics mine]. Oh well.
