{{Short description|American neurosurgeon (1926–2010)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2012}} {{Other people|Robert White}} {{Infobox person | name = Robert J. White | birth_name = Robert Joseph White | birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|1|21}} | birth_place = [[Duluth, Minnesota]], U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|9|16|1926|1|21|mf=yes}} | death_place = [[Geneva Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio]], U.S. | education = [[University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)|University of St. Thomas]] (B.S., 1951) <br /> [[Harvard Medical School]] ([[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]], 1953) <br /> [[University of Minnesota]] (PhD, Neurosurgery, 1962) | occupation = Neurosurgeon }}
'''Robert Joseph White''' (January 21, 1926 – September 16, 2010) was an American [[neurosurgeon]] and [[Bioethics|bioethicist]] best known for his work on [[hypothermia]] and his experiments with [[head transplant]]s on mammals, including living monkeys.
== Early life == White was born January 21, 1926,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert Joseph White |url=https://www.pas.va/en/academicians/deceased/white-rj.html |access-date=2024-07-14 |website=[[Pontifical Academy of Sciences]] |language=en}}</ref> raised in [[Duluth, Minnesota]], by his mother and an aunt. His father was killed in combat while serving in the [[Pacific War|Pacific theater]] during [[World War II]].<ref name="Grant">{{cite news |author=Segall |first=Grant |date=2010-09-16 |title=Dr. Robert J. White, famous neurosurgeon and ethicist, dies at 84 |url=http://www.cleveland.com/obituaries/index.ssf/2010/09/dr_robert_j_white_was_a_world-.html |accessdate=2011-02-04 |newspaper=[[The Plain Dealer]] |publisher=[[Cleveland.com]] |language=en-US}}</ref> White stated in a 2009 Motherboard interview that his interest in the human brain started in [[high school]] when his [[biology]] teacher admired his dissection of a frog cranium and told White that he should become a brain surgeon.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Feinberg |first=David |date=2009-04-02 |title=Chilled Monkey Brains |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/chilled-monkey-brains-803-v16n4/ |access-date=2024-02-24 |work=Motherboard |publisher=[[Vice Media]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Education and career == White began his undergraduate studies at the [[University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)|University of St. Thomas]] before entering the [[University of Minnesota Medical School]] in 1949; he later transferred to [[Harvard Medical School]] in 1951, where he earned his medical degree ''[[cum laude]]'' in 1953.<ref name="Metro">{{Cite web |title=Robert J. White, MD, PhD – Hall of Honor 2011 Inductee |url=http://www.metrohealth.org/?id=1761&sid=1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502033126/http://www.metrohealth.org/?id=1761&sid=1 |archive-date=2014-05-02 |accessdate=2014-04-30 |website=[[MetroHealth]]}}</ref> White had ten children with his wife, Patricia Murray, a nurse he met at [[Peter Bent Brigham Hospital]] while completing his surgical internship and residency. A devout Roman Catholic, Dr. White was a member of the [[Pontifical Academy of Sciences]]. He attended mass regularly and prayed before performing surgeries.<ref name="Grant"/>
Throughout his career, White performed over 10,000 surgical operations and authored more than 900 publications on clinical neurosurgery, medical ethics and health care.<ref name=Grant/> He received [[honorary doctorates]] from [[John Carroll University]] (Doctor of Science, 1979), [[Cleveland State University]] (Doctor of Science, 1980), [[Walsh University]] (Doctor of Humane Letters, 1996) and the University of St. Thomas (Doctor of Sciences, 1998).<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Yearbook 2008 |year=2008 |publisher=The Holy See |location=Vatican City |oclc=751144907 |url=https://www.pas.va/content/dam/casinapioiv/pas/pdf-volumi/extra-series/es14pas.pdf|page=255–257}}</ref> White received invitations worldwide to speak, lecture and share his medical expertise. He was a consultant to the Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery in Moscow and was the only foreign member of both Russian and Ukrainian Academies of Medical Science. He lectured extensively in the U.S., Russia, China and Europe.<ref name=Metro /> White also became an adviser to Pope John Paul II on medical ethics. He established the Vatican's Commission on Biomedical Ethics in 1981 after his appointment to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Under White's leadership, the Commission influenced the church's stance on brain death and in vitro fertilization.<ref name=Grant /><ref name=Metro />
He nicknamed himself Humble Bob.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schillace |first=Brandy |title=Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher: A Monkey's Head, the Pope's Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul |date=2021 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=9781982113827 |location=New York |language=en-US}}</ref>{{Rp|page=4}} White founded Metro's neurosurgery department. Many people know him for being the leading target for protesters. A PETA activist went as far as to call him "Dr. Butcher" and described his experiments as "epitomizing the crude, cruel [[vivisection]] industry."<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last1=Bennett |first1=Carla |date=1995-08-26 |title=Letter to the editor: Cruel and Unneeded |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/26/opinion/l-cruel-and-unneeded-324295.html |accessdate=2015-04-26 |work=[[People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals]] |publisher=[[The New York Times]] |page=18 |agency=People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals}}</ref> For 40 years, White was a neurological surgery professor at [[Case Western Reserve University]] medical school, a well-liked teacher and an acclaimed surgeon.<ref name=Grant /><ref name=Metro /> He was one of the best known neurosurgeons in the United States, notably for his head transplant experiments on rhesus monkeys.<ref name=":1" />
== Research == {{more|Head transplant}} In 1970, after a long series of preliminary experiments, White performed a [[organ transplantation|transplant]] of one monkey head onto the body of another monkey. Because the surgery included severing the [[Spinal column|spine]] at the neck, the subjects were paralyzed from the neck down. After the surgery, because the cranial nerves within the brain were still intact and nourished by the circulatory system from the new body, the monkey could still hear, smell, taste, eat and follow objects with its eyes.<ref name="Mims">{{Cite news |last=Mims |first=Christopher |date=2013-07-01 |title=First-Ever Human Head Transplant is now possible, says Neuroscientist |url=http://qz.com/99413/first-ever-human-head-transplant-is-now-possible-says-neuroscientist/ |accessdate=2014-05-01 |work=[[Quartz (publication)|Quartz]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
Ultimately, immune rejection caused the monkey to die after nine days.<ref name="McCrone2003">{{cite journal |last1=McCrone |first1=John |date=Dec 2003 |title=Monkey Business |url=http://www.dichotomistic.com/mind_readings_head_transplant.html |url-status=dead |journal=[[Lancet Neurology]] |language=en |volume=2 |issue=12 |page=772 |doi=10.1016/S1474-4422(03)00596-9 |pmid=14636785 |s2cid=5254407 |quote=(As reproduced at author's personal webpage) |accessdate=20 January 2015 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228155418/http://www.dichotomistic.com/mind_readings_head_transplant.html |archivedate=February 28, 2015 |df=mdy-all|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Jerry Silver]], an expert in regrowing severed nerves, called White's experiments on monkeys, "fairly barbaric."<ref name=":0" />
During the 1990s, White planned to perform the same operation on humans and practiced on corpses at a mortuary. He hoped he could do head transplant surgery on the physicist [[Stephen Hawking]] and the actor [[Christopher Reeve]].<ref name=McCrone2003 /> The continuation of White's work in head transplantation research and application has been discussed recently in the neurosurgical literature by Italian neurosurgeon [[Sergio Canavero]];<ref name="Canavero">{{cite journal |last=Canavero |first=Sergio |date=2013-06-13 |title=HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI) |journal=[[Surg Neurol Int]] |language=en |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=335–42 |doi=10.4103/2152-7806.113444 |pmc=3821155 |pmid=24244881 |doi-access=free}}</ref> the feasibility of spinal cord reconstruction and cephalo-spinal linkage in humans received support in 2014 from a German study.<ref name="Estrada">{{cite journal |last1=Estrada |first1=V |last2=Brazda |first2=N |last3=Schmitz |first3=C |last4=Heller |first4=S |last5=Blazyca |first5=H |last6=Martini |first6=R |last7=Müller |first7=HW |date=2014 |title=Long-lasting significant functional improvement in chronic severe spinal cord injury following scar resection and polyethylene glycol implantation |journal=[[Neurobiology of Disease]] |language=en |volume=67 |pages=165–79 |doi=10.1016/j.nbd.2014.03.018 |pmid=24713436 |s2cid=22390960}}</ref>
== Death == White died at his home in Geneva, Ohio, on September 16, 2010, at age 84 after suffering from [[diabetes]] and [[prostate cancer]].<ref name="Grant" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Manjila |first=Sunil |last2=Alambyan |first2=Vilakshan |last3=Singh |first3=Gagandeep |last4=Satish |first4=Priyanka |last5=Geertman |first5=Robert T. |date=2018-05-01 |title=From Hypothermia to Cephalosomatic Anastomoses: The Legacy of Robert White (1926–2010) at Case Western Reserve University of Cleveland |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878875018302183 |journal=World Neurosurgery |volume=113 |pages=14–25 |doi=10.1016/j.wneu.2018.01.175 |issn=1878-8750|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
== References == {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
== Sources == *[https://web.archive.org/web/20051126022544/http://www.clevescene.com/issues/1999-12-09/putre.html The Frankenstein Factor] *{{YouTube|EPmTVIzeFFE|VBS.tv documentary}} *Journalist and author [[Oriana Fallaci]] wrote "The Dead Body and the Living Brain" (''Look'', 26, 1967, pgs 99–105) based on White's experimentation on primates; in turn, this was included in the 2010 book edited by philosopher [[Tom Regan]] and theologian [[Andrew Linzey]], ''Other Nations: Animals in Modern Literature''.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Robert J.}} [[Category:1926 births]] [[Category:2010 deaths]] [[Category:American neurosurgeons]] [[Category:Harvard Medical School alumni]] [[Category:Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences]] [[Category:People from Duluth, Minnesota]] [[Category:University of Minnesota Medical School alumni]] [[Category:Animal testing in the United States]] [[Category:Catholics from Minnesota]] [[Category:Physicians of Brigham and Women's Hospital]]