Man to undergo head transplant gives up hope of surgery

The man who volunteered to be a human guinea pig by undertaking the world's first head transplant this year has admitted his dream will never happen. Severely handicapped Russian Valery Spiridonov, 31, now accepts his hopes of his head being grafted onto a new healthy body are over. Controversial pioneering neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero - dubbed Dr Frankenstein - has vowed to undertake the first such transplant in China with an as yet unnamed local patient undergoing the operation. Valery Spiridonov, 31, who suffers from a muscle-wasting disease and had volunteered to undergo the world's first head transplant, says the operation will not go ahead As preparation the Turin-based medic was recently part of a team that attached a new head to a rat. But Spiridonov - who worked with Professor Canavero for two years and became the human face of hopes for head transplant surgery - acknowledged he had now lost his hopes a new body free from disabilities.