Surgeons are planning on doing face transplants on people with severe facial disfigurements in the near future. What do you guys think about the subject? Is it worth the risk? Is it even ethical?

BBC
CBS

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I am opposed to this, as eventually, the average joe ends up paying for this kind of nonsense. If people want this kind of stuff covered in their insurance, let them pay for it. A lot.

As for it being ethical, well, as long as we don't export some kind of people to deathcamps to supply the faces, why not? I guess the ultimate decision is between the donor and the person receiving the transplant (and the surgeon, of course).

Risk? Well, that's for the doctor and patient to decide. The insurance will put some pressure on the doctor, so he won't be too jumpy for procedures, and it will all balance each other out.

What we need, however, is extensive insurances, where it is easy to insure yourself for things you actually intend to use. If no one in your family has ever broken a bone, and you probably won't either because you work from your home and never do anything, you shouldn't have to pay for that.

Mr U

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Goodness, I hope not. I don't see why someone would; it's a lot of pain and risk just to change your face a bit (if you're just the average joe). Think of the rage families would be in if they found out their loved-one's facial skin was being used by some overly-wealthy person who just wanted to try something new.
As the articles pointed out, sure, it won't look just like the donor, but more like a medium between the donor and recipient. Still, there'll be traces of the original owner in there.

hmm...I wonder if a person has facial piercings, they're automatically ruled out as a possible face donor.

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If you have a severe facial disfigurement I don't see what would be wrong with a face transplant. Of course then eventually people wil be getting these right and left, and that wouldn't be right. But really, if you're, well, really ugly, unbelievably so (and I'm not talking about too many zits or a chin that's too long), then what's wrong with a face transplant?

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I'm afriad you're a tad mistaken, Novus. Check out the articles- a face transplant won't alter your bone structure (such as a chin being too long). It instead will just provide a new skin and partial nose with which to cover your face. It also means you'll have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of your life, and the side-effects of these can be severe, even cause cancer.

And I haven't even begun to start on infection risks/worst case senarios...

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Could you?pleeease?i'd be quite interested to hear about those. . . . .

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I'm not sure about the carcinogene properties of such anti-rejection drugs. Rather, I believe they work against the immune system, meaning that cancer won't be 'treated/remedied' by one's own body.

Anyway, pretty soon we should be able to clone tissues, which would enable us to create new skin without need of such anti-rejection drugs, and donors.

Infection risk is not really that bad. I'm not sure if they give an antibiotic with a surgery, but I wouldn't be suprised. Worst case scenarios.. Of course there can be complications, but it's not the hardest of procedures.

Mr U

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Isnt this just glorified plastic surgery?

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It's Extreme Plastic Surgery, to the max! I swear, if they make another stupid reality show out of this...

It sounds to me like another Michael Jackson craze.

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What year did Face/Off come out now? Like 1997 or something? Riiiiiight...

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On today's Change of Face...
A total shocker: She [picture of (insert female celebrity here)] wants to go from this face to this [show picture of old wrinkled face] one! Will Dr. Chandrasegarampillai do it? Or will he chicken out, longing for the glory days of [celebrity name]?

Not to mention the possible criminal things that could come out of this. If someone wants to frame someone for a crime, all they need is a copy of that person's face, perhaps some gait and apperance adjustments, a security camera, and a very sneaky person, and bingo! The wrong guy goes to jail for life. The camera said they didn't need the DNA unless they sue for it or whatever, just convict him!

But if it's for reconstructive surgery, fine, but: How are the doctors going to find the right-sized face?

-Snoopy

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