(Yicai Global) Dec. 8 -- Experiments contrary to ethical rules are not only meaningless, but also undermine the foundations of medical morality and the medical establishment thus firmly opposes such trials, said professor Lin Feng, vice president of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association (CMDA) and honorary president of its neurosurgeons' branch, following heated controversy recently roused by the announcement of the completion of a human head transplant on a corpse in China. 

Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero declared he successfully carried out the world's first human head transplant on a cadaver on Nov. 17. Much attention from Chinese Internet users rested on China as the site of the operation, and the co-participation in the procedure of Prof. Ren Xiaoping at Harbin Medical University.

As the spinal cord is severed, the head and body cannot establish a neural connection, the honorary president of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) Administrative Council said on its website on Oct. 23 regarding the head transplant. People still lack the ability to regenerate neurons after the spinal cord has been severed, so it is not only unacceptable ethically, but also insignificant scientifically. From an ethical point of view, any surgical operation medical staff conduct must rest on the consideration of whether it benefits a patient, not just focus on whether it is a magnet for media attention.

As the vice president of CMDA and honorary president of the Neurosurgeon branch, Lin fully concurs in and supports the WFNS statement. Everyone agrees that neurons cannot regenerate. To date, no means exist of reconnecting a severed spinal cord, let alone by 'using glue,' he said.