Slashdot Mirror
Surgeon Says Face Transplants a Reality
Aspherical Cow writes "A New York Times Magazine article about how a London surgeon is planning on performing an experimental full-face transplant. The face would be harvested like any other donor organ and used on a disfigured person. Lots of issues of identity come up with something like this, but they say that this won't turn Nicholas Cage into John Travolta."
Imagine this...
You owe people a great deal of money and they send the "heavies" round, but you've already died in an acident.
Someone else has got your face now & the heavies recognise you. Not likely to happen to anyone here, but it could happen in the real world.
And another thing, how would you pass facial biometrics at US airports if the previous face was from a criminal?
... transplants that are going to make a lot of money.
It's the scalp transplants that will make bazillions. Just think, you can get a whole new type of hair or just have your scalp cloned and slice out the male pattern baldness.
I would pay for that.
A lot of study has been put into what beauty really is. If you look at it from an evolutionary point of view, it's to show us which mates would best carry our genes.
When you change someone's face, you can't help but wonder if you're throwing a wrench into a system thats evolved over so many thousands of years. This argument would apply not only to this, but plastic surgery and what not.
It seams every day, medical technology is weakening the race more and more by causing people to depend on a large infrastructure to survive. At what point do you draw the line between leaving people out in the cold for the greater good or helping them?
Cthulhu Saves.
I wonder how the human brain and psyche deals with seeing a different face in the mirror after years of strengthening a connection between the natural face and the "I".
If you outlaw the law, only criminals will have laws
Last year, I attented some autopsies at my university (neighter as the one lying on the board nor as an active medic). This has been a great opportunity to see how things are inside your body. The routine of an autopsy includes the opening of the skull and the inspection of the brain. The face remains intact (it is turned over - this can be imagined literally). When the procedure is over, you won't see from the front that the face has been moved.
Anyway, this cannot be copied over 1:1 but it gives you a hint that transplanting faces it not voodo science or (ony) hollywood. I guess the 'commercial' market for transplanting faces exceedes many other types of organs.
What about the immune system? Won't the face get rejected?
That's a tricky one... if the other car wasn't there at that exact time, he might have made it home without incident.
Has this ever happened to you? (you = whoever is reading this)
If so, you're _exactly_ the same as Reggie, you were just lucky enough not to hit anyone.
If you're going to put this guy in the gas chamber, make sure you throw in every other asshole who has ever jumped in a car with their blood full of alcohol.
And how is locking someone in a cage for the rest of their life not revenge?
If you don't have anything nice to say, shut up you stupid prick.