“What…? Where am I…? Why does my voice sound different? Why can’t I move?! Why can’t I feel my body?! Oh god I don’t have a heartbeat! I can’t breathe I! I literally can’t breath!”
Upon hearing the commotion a woman entered the small closet sized room. She had a professional look about her, with her brunette hair tied up into a bun and a grey skirt and jacket. “Mr Hunter I’m afraid you’ve been in a terrible accident, your entire body and head were damaged beyond repair however we did manage to save your brain. Unfortunately no donor bodies or heads were available at the time and one had only been made available recently.”
“Heads? Bodies? What are you talking about? Why do I sound like a girl? How long was I out?” Mr Hunter asked.
“Right, I’m sorry this must be an adjustment for you as the technology used only started seeing use shortly before your accident. Basically we now have the ability to detach, and swap parts without affecting that part’s survival. This has allowed us to save patients, like yourself, from accidents they usually can’t. So for the past two years you have been nothing but a brain in a jar pending a donation body. Now people don’t usually lose their minds but Katie had a rare neurological disease,” the woman explained.
“Wait so I’m just a head, I’m a girl’s head?!” Mr Hunter exclaimed in shock and confusion.
“I know it’s a lot to take in but I find it’s better to get everything out of the way first and then let you recover afterwards. Yes the donor is a woman, her name was Katie age 23, not too different from yours. She was chosen as your name was first on the list and you didn’t have a prefered gender selected as you weren’t aware of the technology available at the time. Unfortunately due to your position you were only high up on the brain transplant list and not the body transplant list so her body was given to someone else. That being said you have been placed on the waiting list for a new body as well and aids will be made available to you in the meantime. There is a third option however, we can find you a host body though in doing so that places you further back on the waiting list for your own body.”
“What if I don’t want this head?” Mr Hunter asked.
“Then you go back to your jar but that will put you at the bottom of the waiting list and having only one gender selected does make it go slower. Heads are also very hard to come by so you’d be on that list for a very long time. You were already under for two years and you were 20th on the list with both genders automatically selected for you. So I think you can guess how long the wait will be if you were put at the bottom again and only select male.”
“What about euthanasia? Is that a possibility?” Mr Hunter asked with tears rolling down his or her cheeks. It’s an option he would’ve never considered before but now he felt like he should ask the question.
The lady looked at him and went quiet for a moment as she looked at him with sorrow and pity. She pulled out a tissue and wiped away the tears. “It is,” she admitted. “The law requires you to be stripped down to a brain first but yes euthanasia is always a possibility. Though you’ve effectively come back to life after two years of slumber so before you make any drastic choices may I suggest you at least try the other options provided. I’ll tell you what we’ll go with the host option, that way you have some control and don’t need to fully rely on others. I know a nice girl who would be kind enough to act as a host,” the woman paused for a moment. “Yes I know, I said a woman but given your current state it’s the better choice. The likelihood of finding a male willing to host a female head is very small. So is finding a female that’ll host a male head. Luckily for you this person I know won’t care that you were originally male. So I’ll arrange everything and we’ll get you out of here by the end of the day.”