Wouldn't it be a body transplant? I know the head is the smaller bit, but it's also where the person lives.

It's theoretically possible but not with today's technology. The nervous system, in particular the spinal cord, is basically impossible to patch together. So while you can physically attach a head to another body, you can't get the brain to control the body so no heartbeat, no breathing, no movement.

We can't build an eye with the same resolution as our human eyes because of the number of nerves to be connected. That's just the eye. The spinal cord has orders of a magnitude more nerve connections. And let's not even start about all the blood vessels that have to be connected.

During the procedure, the brain would also have to be supplied with blood, nutrition, the right electrical signals, and more.

We could maybe connect a few things, supply the brain with a few things it requires, but the damage caused will only cascade and be fatal.

Once you read about a successful artificial eye with the same fidelity being implanted, maybe then a safe head transplantation might seem realistic.

There was going to be a head transplant attempt more recently, but the person planning to get it due to his condition opted not to do it after he got a girlfriend.

This article goes into more detail: https://thatjoescott.com/2024/05/14/what-happened-to-the-first-human-head-transplant-feat-medlife-crisis/

A head doesn't die immediately...

But you'd just hooked a parallel life support to the head, switch bodies, then remove life support.

Anyways, until we can fix paralyzation, there's not a huge gain to a head transplant.

Once we can do that, head transplants would likely follow shortly