Face Transplant

Have you heard about the face transplant in France? Here's a link to the article if you're interested.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051202/ap_ ... transplant

What do you think?

I'm not particularly opposed - if it's for medical reasons and not vanity or hiding from the law. I imagine it would be totally freaky to wake up and look in the mirror to see someone else's face.

I thought it sounded really amazing and seemed very appropriate for the situation.

I imagine it would be totally freaky to wake up and look in the mirror to see someone else's face.

I wonder how long it took Michael Jackson to get used to that?

[Vishenka69]

I wonder how long it took Michael Jackson to get used to that?

LOL!

I think it's great for that patient. I don't even have a problem with cases where plastic surgery is largely about vanity. Of course, I wouldn't go there but I don't see why I have any right to block anyone's choices regarding their own body. Of course the only caveat is that the patient be apprised of the risks.

[Rapunzel]

"It is precisely because there was no way to restore the functions of this patient by normal plastic surgery that we attempted this transplant," Camby said. "She could no longer eat normally, she had great difficulty speaking and there is no possibility with plastic surgery today to repair the muscles around the mouth which allow people to articulate when they speak and not spit out food when they eat."

I'll buy that explanation. It sounds very scary (can you imagine if her body rejects the new tissue ). But, I don't have any more of a problem with it than I do with organ transplants (which, I don't have a problem with on average). The only ethical question in my mind is the condition of the person who is the tissue donor. That can get hairy. But, otherwise I don't have any issue with anyone receiving a tissue transplant with the possible exception of the possibility of ovaries being transplanted someday - that brings up too many troubing issues in my opinion.

Jennifer