Head-erochromia

USA, 1908: Charles Guthrie "successfully" creates the first two-headed dog. His surgery team stitched on the front half of a smaller dog to a bigger dog, just at the base of the neck. There was too long of a delay from the severing to the attachment, which left the smaller dog with the most basic of motor functions, and just barely that. The experiment was shut down due to ethical and moral objections to the entirety of the experiment and as to why they were attempting to play god and usurp the absolution of death. While it was shut down, the ramifications of this experiment and the curiosity of humankind to tame and abate death would persist.

USSR, 1959: Vladimir Demikhov took this little and quite unsuccessful experiment and created an experimental surgery research laboratory to conduct it on his own. He recruited the best medical, scientific, and surgical minds from the vast and intellectually cultured Soviet Union. Over 20 puppies were sewn to adult dogs, and the results were astonishingly improved compared to the Guthrie experiment, with one miraculously living to 29 days. Demikhov later wrote Experimental Transplantation of Vital Organs, in which he commented on one of the tests, “...that the attached puppy attempted to pull himself free from the adult dog, as if to get away.” The end product of these Russian experiments was supposed to be mechanical, obedient super soldiers. A dog's head piloting a heavily armed and armored weapon, ready to take commands and fight off the scourge that are the enemies of the USSR. Declassified files show that these mecha-soldiers were never able to be perfected, since the technology disallowed for the dogs to control anything other than their remaining muscles of their head. After the fall of the USSR, some records were found with photographic proof that scientists did attach the heads to a prototype suit, and records showing that the program was a complete failure.

Brazil, 2007: The first human head transplant is attempted in secrecy, since no hospital would allow the operation to be held there. Moments after the patient is put under, a task force of UN soldiers break into the hidden surgery room, and the surgical staff is put under arrest. The leak was sourced to a nurse, who remains anonymous to this day, who tipped off a friend at a foreign embassy of the mansion deep in the jungle where the operation was going to take place in the days following. The patient publicly demanded that the UN allow himself to be allowed to be operated on since he was diagnosed with a severe physical illness that would later be the cause of his death. Within four months, the surgery team was found guilty of ethical misconduct, and jailed for their attempts. All of the evidence for this operation is held by INTERPOL.

The lights come up in the hall. The audience shifts uneasily as a slideshow from the Soviet experiments continues to shuffle on the screen behind the stage. A man walks from a small row of seats just off to the side and a podium appears. He places his stack of index cards upon the podium and adjusts the microphone. The man turns and gestures towards a rather graphic still of surgery being conducted.

"What you have seen here is not the first, or the last, attempt by someone to defeat death by fusing two creatures together. There's some merit to the attempts, and they are not just to spit in the face of god or creator of any sort. Frankenstein's monster is probably the most well known literary example of an experiment such as this. This has been a fictional "warning" to anyone thinking of defeating death, that even if it is resurrected, whatever that was brought back cannot be bound to the morality of the living ever again. But again, this was just a purely fictional instance and nothing substantial really to hold anyone back from actually attempting such an experiment." The lecturer clicks the projector remote, and a photo set comes up of a bodiless dog, tubes circulating fluids from reservoirs and back into the severed neck. It's seemingly alive in some of them, with open eyes and an apparent interest in the chunk of meat that was dangled in front of it in one of the photos. "These are from another experiment, where the Soviets believed that they could create some type of artificial ground force made up of biomechanical soldiers with the head of a dog, because what is more loyal and obedient than a 4,000 pound, heavily armed and armored, mechanical, warrior-dog?" A few worried laughs echo from the audience.

The lecturer clicks the remote again, and a video queues on the large projector screen. It is of the same dog, and it is definitely alive. It looks like it is attempting to stand up, the cheek muscles flexing on the upward facing side of the dogs face. It has no idea that it is no longer attached to it's own body anymore and just a head on a laboratory surgery table. Just before the video ends, you can see the eyes fill up with fear and glaze over.

"As you can see, at the end of the clip, that the head 'dies' for the first time after being removed. The medical team resuscitated the head several times, and kept it alive for roughly a week. The experiment was deemed a failure due to lack of technology sophisticated enough to process the neural impulses to control the mechanical suit. What we can all call a success though is that they did keep the brain functioning and capable of controlling what was left of the dog for that duration of time. That was nearly two centuries ago, just around the time when antibiotics were created, the first successful kidney transplant was conducted, and medical science began to become a growing field. A time where the field of medical science was pulled out from the mire of theological oppression that kept its practices medieval in almost every facet. Today, we are on the precipice of immortality, and we're not afraid to take that leap, much like the forefathers that did these test and experiments all those years ago. Our people live longer, much longer, than previous generations, with many people living long past being a centurion. The current world record holder is still alive at the age of 165. Can you imagine what that person has been through? Imagine the technological advances that have occurred in the last 160 years? Even imagine the jumps in the last fifty years alone! It is absolutely miraculous what we are capable of doing now compared to then." The screen changes again, and it is littered with graphs, flowcharts, and statistics. "What we are here to do today, is show you that this technology is worth getting invested in, and you'd be incredibly surprised in how it is being tested today. We have successfully transferred over one thousand, yes, over one thousand, that's more than fifty five times more subjects than Demikhov, brain and spinal columns specimens from recently deceased lab rats to brand new specimens. In our best example, we had a complete neural re-networking connection.

Keep in mind, this new specimen was only tested in the experimental maze once, and its results were very poor, as most new test subjects tend to be. The entirety of these lab rats are born in a rat farm, and never have to eke out survival in the wild, so their instincts are somewhat dulled and take some time to flex their genetic memory of survival tactics. It had high levels of stress and barely moved within ten inches in any direction. It was clocked at being in the maze for one hour, and had no significant progress. On the other hand, the recently deceased lab rat was a veteran of the mazes and actually held a lab record of completing the maze and the puzzle box at the end in just under fifteen minutes. When the extraction and replacement was completed, and the rat was cleared for full duty in the trial lab again, we put it to the test; The results were just incredibly mind blowing. We tested the rat in the intermediate maze, and it cleared it within twenty minutes. The rat had retained the memory that stored its experiences in this maze, and even amazingly, recognized the intern who fed him, prior to his death, and was even friendly with her like he was before. This kind of absolute recall and return to normalcy is unheard of in the field of brain and spine transplantation. The specimen is here today, alive and well, take a look for yourself."

A cart with a plain metal cage on top of it was rolled out, and the rat was scurrying around lively, trying to get a fix on where it was. The lecturer opened the top of the cage and carefully picked up the brown and white rat. "As you can see, it's perfectly calm, it has no signs of becoming unruly and murderous like the terrible Frankenstein's Monster. It's as if it only underwent a very simple surgery. We've even found that it was able to cope with a small variance of blood types between the brain stem and host body. We're also working on 'programmable' blood, in which a patient could be transfused with this universal blood, and not have to worry about blood typing and the scarcity of certain blood types being in stock. But that technology is being produced at another of our labs, which is one of the leading hematology labs in the world; but I digress. The only downfall we found is that this rat is as smart as a veteran lab rat, and we can't conduct the same trials on it anymore, but that just means we'll have to come up with more just for this type of lab rat." There's a loud murmur rolling through the rows of the audience. The lecturer places the rat back in the cage, and its rolled off stage. "With that, ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your time, and we'll be fielding questions after a short intermission."

[After Intermission...]

"Welcome back to our second half of our presentation on brain and spine transplantation science and research. A few hours ago, we proposed to you that we could transfer a brain and partial spinal cord as successfully as we did in lab rats, and there was no significant damage to any piece of this nearly impossible to put together puzzle, and it could be done with humans with just as good of odds, in theory.

Yesterday, at five o'clock Eastern Standard Time, our surgery team sewed up the brain of our thirteenth test subject, an elderly man of 115, who, in his prime, was a geophysicist and astronaut, into a donated body from a twenty five year old man who suffered an end to his life from a blood while he was recovering from an appendectomy just a few days ago. His family was sad in his passing, but were willing to donate his body for the advancement of science, which the young man was always very adamant about doing if he passed on. We are all in his debt and we thank him for his generous donation to our cause.” The audience bowed their heads and sat in silence in respect of the young man's final wish.

The moment of silence remained in the air for quite some time, and a few prayers could be heard under breath. A smattering of shifting bodies in seats and throats being cleared announced the ending of the moment. The lecturer raised his head, and clicked forward for the slideshow. A fullscreen Q&A illuminated the room. “Thank you all, and now it’s time for our Q&A segment of this extraordinary event. Please please queue up on either side of the hall, where there are mics and a staff member waiting.” A handful of professional looking people were already waiting on the sides and took their place in front of the mic.

“Good evening sir, I’m Jane Kirtz with MCN World News. There has been a lot of arguing about what this operation is classified as, head transplant, body transplant, or numerous other iterations that mean nearly the same as those two terms. Can you clarify what exactly this operation is?” “A great first question that set the precedent for the evening, thank you very much, Ms. Kirtz. This operation is known as an Encephalium Transplantation, which is the scientific term for a brain transplant. Since we view the brain as the driving force of the body, it is the ‘essence’ of a human being, which allows us to call it so. If it were the body itself, without regard to the brain, then it would be called a body transplant. In this operation, we are removing the brain from one body and placing it into another, and just like a liver or kidney transplant, the name derives from the organ being extracted and replaced. I hope that answers your question completely, Ms. Kirtz.”

“Thank you sir, it has answered it entirely, and unfortunately, I have to pay up on my lost bet after I get back to the office tomorrow morning.” “Well, I can take it back and call it a body-ectomy for your benefit, on the record of course.” the reporter giggles as she waves off the offer and returns to her seat, and scattered laughter erupts from several pockets of the audience. When the laughter dies down, the lecturer gestures to the mic on the opposite side, where another professional stands at the ready. “Good evening, I’m Stanley Williams with Global Daily and thank you for taking my question. With a burgeoning topic such as this, there are those who question the compatibility of one person's body and brain with another, and with knowing that many transplants in the past have been rejected by the receiving body, what issues may arise with this operation?” “Another excellent question, Mr. Williams, and thank you for being here. We, as the human race, has struggled since the end of the 19th century to make medicine work how we want it. The work of blood typing around the turn of the century made it that much easier, and the creation of some blood substitutes to aid in transfusions and reduce the chance of a transplant rejection down into the low single digit percentage. Each block of discovery building up to this cutting edge event that will help humanity maintain-” A door at the rear of the hall slams open, and a group holding picket signs come roaring through, shouldering past the event staff. “BLASPHEMY! BLASPHEMY! PLAYING GOD AIN’T FOR ME! BLASPHEMY!” The group chants as it races toward the stage. Their signs have effigies of god holding a scalpel away from a surgeon, a poor person with the words organ cattle on a sandwich board holding up an old, fat politician, and a bible blocking demonic surgeons holding surgery tools from the world. The event staff scurries to cut off the protesters before the get to the stage, and the audience boos and erupts in yells of counter-protest.

The ragtag group of around a dozen with signs is halted within spitting distance of the stage. Screaming and swatting the event staff with their signs, they are herded toward the back and eventually removed with the help of the local police force. The audience applauds and jeers the protesters as they exit, being man handled and cuffed in quick fashion. The lecturer smiles as he adjusts his cuffs and index cards. “Well, there’s always some group out there who believes that mankind should kowtow to the will of God and allow fate to take its course. These are the same people who’ll be waiting for a donor a few years down the road and keep it quiet to their comrades who are also secretly waiting for some sort of procedure. While we cannot stop them from believing what they do, we can only support their stance and freedom to believe in such a ridiculous notion that humanity should not take life into their hands when fate has foretold a misfortune. I commend them in their activities, but I would ask them to accept their faith and science in the same spoonful.” The audience applauds in agreeance with the quip, and refocus their attention to a change in the projection screen. A banner on top reads, MOMENTS AWAY FROM LIVE FEED FROM THE RECOVERY ROOM WITH TRANSPLANT PATIENT. The lecturer turns to view the change, and looks back toward the hall with a beaming smile.

“We are on standby in his room with a live feed camera eagerly awaiting his awakening, which should be within mere moments. If we are all patient, we could see the beginning of the continuation of his life and work, and another step forward in the field of experimental transplantation. The previous twelve partial matter transplant patients are back living normal lives, and have had no major setbacks, with the most severe being that they don't recognize themselves in their reflections at times, but that's been worked through and they are all alive and well. You'll also be happy to know our little test subject that you met before intermission is still scurrying happily along after being retired from lab work, was adopted out to a senior lab technician's children who named him 'Barley Oats', and is loved dearly by them. A thank you to them for allowing us to showcase Barley Oats here today." The screen behind the stage brightens and a photo of the three children petting Barley Oats, who is happily chewing on a carrot stick while being held and pet by the three children. "Aww, aren't they just precious together? It's always wonderful to see children and scientifically altered rodents getting along so well!" A small laughter set is politely uttered from the darkness in the hall. A small light flashes on the podium, just out of sight to anyone in the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm getting the signal that our patient is beginning to stir and momentarily we'll cut to the live feed from his hospital room in Virginia. If you'll be so kind as to shut off all recording devices and cell phones in respect to this monumental and momentous occasion. This is what we have been waiting for ever since the first human began to philosophize about death and the wonder of living a life that never ends. We can thank Ponce de Leon for searching for the Fountain of Youth, Hercules for forging the River Styx, and Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones doing all the drugs he could get his hands on for all attempting to find the right way of life to live eternally."

A shuffling quietly takes place and the audience eagerly awaits in hushed attention. Two centuries of experimentation and research have come down this operation. A full brain transplant from one body to another, allowing the knowledge and experience of an elderly individual to continue on for another life cycle. Instead of losing the years and years of brainstorming, wild thoughts, and potential breakthroughs, a continuation is allowed and hopefully humankind would benefit from. A gateway to eternal life is within reach, a way to carry on further than any known creature roaming upon the Earth. A glimmer of hope once again shines just beyond the horizon.

A person appears from the side of the stage, hurrying towards the podium, and quickly whispers to the lecturer. His body stiffens and the lights begin to dim. “Ladies and gentleman, I just received word that the feed from the hospital is going online as I speak. Prepare yourselves for the advancement in technology and knowledge that we have harnessed to grab the reigns of our own destiny in the universe.” The screen cuts to the live feed of the hospital room, where a patient can be seen in a bed, and several attendants dispersed in the room. The patient's eyelids flutter and slowly his eyes open for the first time, in his new iteration of a mixed individual. A hushed tone projects from the speakers, the doctors in the room are welcoming the patient back to consciousness. They ask him to hold his arms up, and he complies. Then they ask him to touch his fingers one at a time to his thumb in a certain order, and creakily his finger begin to alternate in order. They congratulate him and he laughs in response. His face seems to drain of all color after laughing, and the patient’s room goes quiet.

After a few tense moments, he moves his hands up to his face and covers it entirely. He slides his hands down and there's a look of complete confusion in his eyes. "This isn't my face." He says, and is immediately alarmed by his new voice. "WHY THE FUCK DO I SOUND LIKE THIS? WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" He bucks wildly in his bed and begins to scream and yell over and over,"THIS ISN'T ME. THIS IS NOT MY BODY." The attendants attempt to contain the man to his bed and sedate him, but in his powerful twenty five year old body, they are no match for his wild, adrenaline driven strength. He lets out an ear piercing scream as he fingers the stitches along the base of his neck, and proceeds to push deep down in between the sutures, and rips them apart. His body falls to a convulsing heap of broken skin and blood at the foot of the bed.

The feed goes black. The Lecturer stands silently just to the side of the stage, mouth agape, as the audience begins to break into hysterical crying and screams of fear. Under his breath, as he shakes his head in complete disbelief, he mutters. "What have we done? We are fools; plain and simple. Fools.”