The New Face Lift

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Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday September 19, 2005 @07:16AM from the so-much-for-biometrics dept.

RiotXIX writes to tell us that US surgeons plan on moving forward with their newest experimental medical practice, a face transplant. Doctors have already succeeded in making this practice a reality with cadavers donated for medical research and will soon begin interviewing a shortlist of patients to determine who, if anyone, will be first up for this procedure. From the article: 'The chance it will work is around 50% and experts have expressed safety and ethical concerns about the procedure. The recipient would have to take powerful anti-rejection drugs for life, which carry considerable long-term health risks, says the Royal College of Surgeons of England, which formed a working party to look at the issue earlier this year.'

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Movie about this? by Anonymous Coward · 2005-09-19 07:19 · Score: 5, Funny

I saw a movie about this once where one guy takes his face/off and changes it with another guy who also takes his face/off. Anyway, they end up chasing each other around for a while and eventually face/off to fight.

I think it was called "Two Guys that Traded Faces".
1. Re:Movie about this? by dnhughes · 2005-09-19 07:48 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I think you are thinking about the new Discovery Health reality show called "Trading Faces"
  
  Sorry, couldn't resist.
  
  --
  "When I die, I want to go quietly, like my grandfather, in his sleep... not screaming, like the passengers in his car."
Anyone know... by TheOtherAgentM · 2005-09-19 07:19 · Score: 5, Funny

if Brad Pitt is a donor? I could really use the sex.
1. Re:Anyone know... by Johnboi+Waltune · 2005-09-19 08:35 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I don't think Brad Pitt would be very interested in having sex with you. So, your best bet is to wait until he has passed out from the anesthesia.
  
  Good luck!
  
  --
  "The advanced societies of the future will be driven by competing systems of psychopathology." -JG Ballard
let me be the first to say by mrfibbi · 2005-09-19 07:19 · Score: 5, Interesting

WHAT THE HELL? Then I thought "oh, okay, it's april fools." Then I remembered that no, it wasn't, and it was just National Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day. I'd be a little weirded out if someone started walking around with my dead wife's face. But that's just me.
1. Re:let me be the first to say by Anonymous Coward · 2005-09-19 07:32 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  "I'd be a little weirded out if someone started walking around with my dead wife's face"
  
  me too, especially as I thought it was still buried under the patio.
2. Re:let me be the first to say by Surt · 2005-09-19 08:02 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I think that's just making things worse. Now we have to picture some guy walking around with a sloppy imperfect copy of his dead wife's face.
  
  --
  "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Been done before... by jnadke · 2005-09-19 07:20 · Score: 5, Funny

Michael Jackson had this done years ago.
Anti-Rejection drugs? by Create+an+Account · 2005-09-19 07:21 · Score: 5, Insightful

I have the feeling that someone that has had a large part of their face burned off in a bad fire isn't going to be too worried about having to take drugs for the rest of their lives. Ethical? Ask the people who need this kind of surgery if THEY think it's ethical.
1. Re:Anti-Rejection drugs? by j-cloth · 2005-09-19 07:31 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Anti rejection drugs aren't just a little pill you pop like your morning Prozak. They are taken to stop your immune system from doing what it's supposed to do (i.e. treat the transplanted flesh as an infection and attack it). Good if you don't want to lose your newly trasplanted face or organ, not so good if you want to be able to fight off a cold or whatever bug your kid brings home from school. Anti rejection drugs are getting better, but they are not trivial.
  If the dilema is between the above and a heart or kidney that will keep you alive, then I think it's pretty simple for most people. If it's between this and a new face, I think there is more deliberation to be done than what you suggest.
2. Re:Anti-Rejection drugs? by SilverspurG · 2005-09-19 08:36 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I have the feeling that someone that has had a large part of their face burned off in a bad fire isn't going to be too worried about having to take drugs for the rest of their lives
  Speaking as someone who does have 3rd degree burns over 40% of his body, including 1/2 of the face and the full neck, I really have to say...
  
  NOT A FSCKING CHANCE IN HELL would I ever go for a transplant from a cadaver. Traditional techniques have been available, and improving, for 30 years which can do a much nicer job without having to take immune blockers for the rest of my life and which use my own skin. There's also just the creepy bit about wearing a cadaver's face... Kinda like Slayer's old tune,"Dead Skin Mask".
  
  The only reason why anyone may volunteer for this is that the doctors involved are (unethically, I might add) attempting to bait patients in by offering the first few operations free of charge. This is such a lowlife technique. How about, instead, we fix the medical and insurance obstacles for people who would like to have genuine reconstructive surgery?
  
  For example, in my case, I can't afford to go for reconstructive surgery even though I actually NEED it. The scar tissue doesn't stretch as I grow, and the mobility of my arms, hands, and neck is severely limited. My waist is the same way. Imagine wearing an ultra-tight girdle 24/7/365 with no chance to take it off, ever. Do you know what that does to digestion after any meal larger than a Triscuit? Can you imagine what it's like to put on weight and not be able to adjust the girdle size? The waist size for my scar-tissue girdle is about a 32-34 (180 lbs). My current waist size is 36 @ 210 lbs. I'm 6'1", I'm not overweight... but I cannot convey to you that daily life is, at best, uncomfortable.
  
  Why don't I go in for surgery? Who will pay my bills for the 30 days that I'm completely incapacitated and the 4 months to relatively complete recovery? Donor sites for skin grafts are EXTREMELY painful and take a long time to heal. My insurance company won't... this is a "preexisting condition" which, according to them, doesn't directly affect my Quality of Life or my ability to do my job.
  
  The problem is not reconstructive technology. The problem is money-grubbing insurance agencies and the predominant wage-slave status of anyone making less than $100k/year.
  
  --
  fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
Re:Ugh by Jubalicious · 2005-09-19 07:25 · Score: 5, Funny

Castor Troy: It's like looking in a mirror. Only... not.
Re:Ugh by Eric+Giguere · 2005-09-19 07:28 · Score: 5, Funny

The chance it will work is around 50%

I'm not sure anymore, are we talking about face transplants or John Travolta's recent movie work?
Eric
Sample chapter from my latest book
I See Dead People by FrankDrebin · 2005-09-19 07:31 · Score: 5, Funny

Doctors have already succeeded in making this practice a reality with cadavers

Let me get this straight. Doctors have "succeeded" in attaching one dead guys face to another dead guys skull. No problems with rejection, I take it. And the recipient hardly looked any worse than before the transplant, I mean, considering the bastards were dead, I'm guessing the failure rate was not very low.

--
Anybody want a peanut?
Pre-transplant therapy... by Grayden · 2005-09-19 07:33 · Score: 5, Funny

It puts the lotion on its skin...

--
Shades of Grayden
per Wired by moviepig.com · 2005-09-19 07:36 · Score: 5, Insightful

Wired quotes a release-form the recipient must sign:
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. After the transplant you might feel remorse, disappointment, or grief or guilt toward the donor. The clinic will try to shield your identity, but the press likely will discover it.
No free lunch...

--
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
Re:Ugh by Anonymous Coward · 2005-09-19 07:36 · Score: 5, Funny

or John Travolta's recent movie work?

John Travolta's recent work sucks because he's infested with Body Thetans. He knows the secrets of Xenu but can't seem to shake them. (see xenu.net if ya don't know what I mean.