Surgeon claims to have carried out head transplant

Team hails 'successful' procedure on monkey and sets deadline for human operation

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(Image credit: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)

An Italian surgeon claims to have carried out the world's first head transplant on a monkey and plans to repeat the procedure on a living human by the end of next year.

Professor Sergio Canavero, working with researchers in China and South Korea, says he successfully grafted the head of a rhesus monkey on to the body of another at the Harbin Medical University in China.

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