Publisher's Weekly Review
Medical historian Schillace (Death's Summer Coat) delivers a fascinating portrait of neurosurgeon Robert J. White (1926--2017), who performed the first transplant of one monkey's head onto another's body in 1970 (the monkey survived for "almost nine days before the body rejected the head") and dreamed of performing the same procedure for humans suffering from multiple organ failure. Schillace explores White's deep Catholic faith and outsized ambitions (he ironically called himself "Humble Bob" ), and contextualizes his experiments with lucid discussions of the primitive state of American medicine in the 1950s and how Cold War tensions fueled an "inner space" race between U.S. and Soviet doctors to perform the first human head transplant. White's determination to prove that "the mind could outlive the body" contributed to breakthroughs in brain cooling techniques for the treatment of spinal cord injuries and head trauma, Schillace notes, even as his experiments led to highly publicized showdowns with animal rights organizations. Schillace explains the medical nuances of White's surgeries without too much gruesome detail, and her lyrical prose and psychological insights keep the pages turning. Readers will be riveted by this story of how White tried "to stretch the limits of what science could do." (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
A story about medicine, morals, religion, and human head transplants. Schillace, editor-in-chief of the academic journal Medical Humanities, has a knack for writing about intriguing, offbeat topics, and her third book, she admits, is "perhaps the strangest story I have ever encountered." The author tells the captivating tale of Robert J. White (1926-2010), a brilliant "doctor with two selves, two impulses, and even two names," who was obsessed with transplanting organs. White, who referred to himself as "Humble Bob," came from a middle-class, devout Catholic background, and he would serve as a bioethics adviser to Pope John Paul II. In medical school, he developed an interest in the brain's physiology, writing that the organ is the "physical repository for the soul." In the 1950s, inspired by a Russian physiologist's grotesque creation of a living, two-headed dog, White began experimenting with hemispherectomies of dogs, keeping the brain alive using pioneering hypothermic cold. A new position in neurosurgery provided White with a platform for his research. Considering his work, the author ponders "what it would mean to be a brain, alive but bodiless." With ease, she explains in detail White's complex medical research and procedures, many of which would have substantial real-world applications. In 1963, White successfully removed a monkey's brain and hooked it up to a "laboratory cyborg" of a donor monkey and a machine White had designed. Still, writes Schillace, "he needed to prove that consciousness could be transplanted." A 1967 article about White's surgeries by journalist Oriana Fallaci resulted in outrage from animal rights activists, a surge in brain death debates, and a nickname: Dr. Butcher. In 1970, White successfully completed a brain transplant, inserting one monkey's brain into another monkey's head; it lived for nine days. Swirling around inside this absorbing biography are Schillace's thoughtful discussions of the knotty issues involved in medical and religious ethics. At times Frankenstein-esque, it's unquestionably a "strange journey from science fiction to science fact." Odd, engrossing science history capably related. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Evoking thoughts of both Victor Frankenstein and the floating heads in jars of Futurama, this biography of a neurosurgeon and his pursuit of transplanting a human head is science at its weirdest. Robert J. White (1926-2010) is portrayed here as an odd and obsessed man, a controversial and complicated character. While he referred to himself as "Humble Bob," some critics bestowed the moniker "Dr. Butcher" for his extreme experimentation on monkeys and dogs. His research included the practical (cerebral hypothermia: protecting the brain by carefully cooling it) and the bizarre (removing a complete monkey brain and keeping it "alive" for 22 hours). White couldn't solve the problem that would inevitably accompany any human head transplant: The patient would become permanently paralyzed. A devout Catholic and father of 10 children, White worked with the Vatican's committee on bioethics. Schillace, editor of a British journal of medical humanities, artfully addresses such ethical issues as animal rights, how we define death, and playing God in the laboratory. In her unnerving chronicle of neuroscience experimentation, she also ponders notions of self and soul, hubris and horror.
Library Journal Review
The mid-20th century brought about great strides in organ transplantation. Robert White, fresh from the U.S. Army Medical Corps toward the end of World War II, was a surgical resident at Peter Brent Brigham Hospital in Boston when the first successful kidney transplant was conducted there. As Schillace (Death's Summer Coat) explains in this readable account, White was a dedicated neurosurgeon, working late into the night after his surgeries were done for the day and often bringing lab mice and monkeys home to keep a close eye on them. He was also a devoted husband and father and a devout Catholic, who founded Pope John Paul II's Committee on Bioethics and belonged to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Schillace expertly narrates White's exploration of the intersection of faith and science, and his determination to find a way to transplant the human soul. Ultimately, White became known for performing head transplants on living monkeys, giving himself the nickname Humble Bob while animal rights activists and skeptics referred to him as Dr. Butcher. VERDICT Schillace brings her expertise as a medical historian to this carefully researched, pioneering biography of an eccentric doctor. A compelling read that will draw in variety of readers.--Marcia G. Welsh, formerly with Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH
