In the 1970s, after a long series of experiments, White performed a transplant of one monkey head onto the body of another monkey, although it lasted just a few days. These operations were continued and perfected to the point where the transplanted head could have survived indefinitely on its new body, though the animals were in fact euthanized. The transplanted heads can see, think, feel, and taste and in short can function in all the ways that they could when attached to their original body, they simply cannot control their new one. The importance of head transplants is that if performed in humans they have the potential to save lives from almost any disease. Anything that afflicts the non-head regions of the body, be it otherwise inoperable non-brain cancer, multiple organ failure, heart disease, diabetes, etc. will be removed if the head is transplanted to a non-afflicted body. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._White