Preparing for the world's first face transplants

[rsmith6621]

"Your face will be removed and replaced with one donated from a cadaver, matched for tissue type, age, sex and skin color. Surgery should last 8 to 10 hours; the hospital stay, 10 to 14 days.
Complications could include infections that turn your new face black and require a second transplant or reconstruction with skin grafts. Drugs to prevent rejection will be needed lifelong, and they raise the risk of kidney damage and cancer"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9397182/

Reading about this makes me as sick as listening to Scotty Mclellen.

[AlienGirl]

1. This will provide hope to many disfigured people

Saying "face transplant" is pretty dramatic; this is better defined as a *facial skin* transplant. It does not transfer the bones that produce facial shape, the muscles that create expressions, or the cartilage that determines the shape of the nose. The recipient will look more like him/herself than like the donor; there will not be "dead people's faces" running around.

It is no scarier than a heart transplant. Imagine the horror people who believed the personality resided in the heart would feel, confronted by heart transplants!

Tucker

[DemInDistress]

2. Is this a cosmetic surgery for the vain among st us..

Recently a person underwent a 6 organ transplant,I think the record is 7 organ transplant.These people are alive right now thanks to the
miracle of medicine.I can't say how their quality of life is now but
surviving a surgery like that is remarkable.
What happens to the former face of the recipient?Is it kept on ice
in case of mis-matched cadaver face?
I would like to see {in the future} clone kits,make a copy of yourself
use growth hormones to promote aging and walla,a perfect "you".Human
clones are not twilight zone material but the Brave New World Visions.

[SeattleGirl]

4. Actually, no it's not cosmetic

Saw a show a while back on The Discovery Health Channel where doctors have already been working on this. It is targeted for people who have suffered massive damage to their faces, such as burns, or other things.

[DemInDistress]

7. I'm all for it Seattlegirl..

My guess is in a few years and 100 new faces behind their {doctors} belt the procedure will be perfected and new face operations will be-
come common.Are you for human cloning? I am !! Who knows in 10/20 yrs.
clones of oneself for medical purposes might also be common.Thats if
there is a world in 10 years......

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. "Turn your face Black". That would be a problem only for a few.

I know Barbra Bush, who needs a transplant, would have a problem with that.

[expatriate]

5. Ever see anyone whose face has been largely burned away?

That's the main reason for this transplant surgery. If it works and gives people who have been so horribly disfigured a normal life, I'm all for it. It is no more sickening than any other kind of transplant or skin graft surgery.

[SheilaT]

6. There are still a lot

of problems with this. It's not going to happen any time soon.

[Sacajawea]

8. Yes, to be sure. But I read a while ago about whole HANDS being

transplanted. I think it's wonderfully amazing that these things can be and are being done!

[LisaL]

9. Hah? They are preparing for it, I imagine they are going to do it

very soon.