Last month a doctor said that he was planning to undertake the world’s first head transplant. The operation is as simple as it sounds. Take the head of one body and surgically reattach to another. The articles discussing the planned operation, which is apparently going to take place in China despite all of the interest that Western countries have in seeing this real-life Lego project, seem focused just on the source of the head. No one seems to be discussing where the body will come from.
Maybe there will be no body at all. Perhaps the idea is to reattach the head to a mannequin’s body, like the kind you see modeling clothes at the mall. Imagine how many more outfits will be sold when the customers, looking for the right size or for something that will match their Kindle Fire, notice one of the mannequins moving its eyes to follow them throughout the store. It will certainly put an end to shoplifting.
Or maybe the head could be reattached to the body of a large kid’s toy. Imagine how popular the toy would be? No need for batteries or pulling a cord. The head just speaks. The box that the toy comes in would have to detail what the head was going to speak about. The toy manufacturer would have to interview the head and find out what it knows. Maybe the head comes from someone who majored in physics or chemistry or ancient history. Think about how much kids could learn. On the other hand, the head may have come from someone who watched nothing but HBO programming, and parents will have to censor the doll and get to tone down its language and imagery, perhaps by making it watch whole seasons of Downton Abbey, until the head-doll starts addressing the kids that play with it as “M’Lord” and “Your Ladyship.”
Or maybe they will locate a body that is fresh and available enough and comes with few enough questions asked as to be ready to receive a new head. But who is to say there will be only one head needing a transplant? What if there are two? The surgeon will have to sew two heads onto the same body and hope they like the same kinds of movies.
Of course, this is all fantasy. No head transplant is going to take place because no insurance carrier is going to pay it. It doesn’t have a procedure code.
