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First Face Transplant

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the doctors-facing-off dept.

mriya3 writes to tell us the BBC is reporting that surgeons in France have performed the first ever face transplant. The medical team, led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, transplanted live tissue to a 36-year old woman whose face had been destroyed by a dog. From the article: "It has been technically possible to carry out such a transplant for some years, with teams in the US, the UK and France researching the procedure. [...] But the ethical concerns of a face transplant, and the psychological impact to the patient of looking different has held teams back."

14 of 446 comments (clear)

  1. Ethical concerns? by Eric+Smith · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What ethical concerns?

    A live person is missing a face. A dead person doesn't need theirs any more. Where's the problem?

    And how could the "psychological impact" be worse than not havin a face? The patient is going to "look different" no matter what is done.

    1. Re:Ethical concerns? by Chmarr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I thought that was kind-of daft too.

      "Oh, I can live with having a mauled/disfigured/destroyed face, but I CANT live with having someone ELSE's face".

      Yeah... right.... :)

      However, doing the ID thing would be interesting from then on.

    2. Re:Ethical concerns? by Eric+Smith · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The article failed to explain why it couldn't be someone that died very recently (within minutes). In a hospital, there are people dying all the time, so finding a donor that isn't on life support doesn't seem completely impossible. Just somewhat difficult.

    3. Re:Ethical concerns? by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Insightful
      and the psychological impact to the patient of looking different

      It doesn't take much brains to realize that someone's going to look different after having their face chewed off by a dog. I should think having a strangers' face is less traumatic than seeing your own looking like a barfed-up big mac.

      Better a stranger's face than a strange face.

    4. Re:Ethical concerns? by Scoth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Some people consider their identity to be extremely personal, including their appearance. I know a few people who would likely prefer "Disfigured, but it's me!" over "some other guy". I personally would probably go with the transplant if the situation ever came up, but it's definitely not a universal assumption to be made.

    5. Re:Ethical concerns? by ScentCone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wull, mghuh-hmm-srtch-hmmm.

      Sorry, I couldn't quite get that out - I was finishing a hamburger. You know, putting some foreign tissue into my body. I think it's pretty obvious why... wait... [smack!]. Sorry, I had to swat a mosquito. It was busy getting some of its fluids into my body. In fact, that reminds me of how I was in an elevator this morning respirating the same damp air as the other ten people in there. Other people's exhalations, microbes, viruses and all!

      Look, you stand way more of a chance of getting a disease from sitting on a public toilet than you do from a highly scrutinized tissue transplant. In fact, you could just as easily die from an anti-biotic-resistant lung infection picked up environmentally while you're in the hospital having your own blood transfused back into you.

      I think you doth protest too much, and that your issue is strictly a superstitious one, similar to those that prevent people from donating their loved ones' perfectly good organs after an accidental death. I'm always amazed that people would rather bury a good liver in the ground (or burn it) than let some poor kid get a new lease on life. But I'm even more amazed by someone who would rather die than take in an organ from a screened donor. That's OK though - helps us evolve more rational people.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  2. I'm confused.. by RapmasterT · · Score: 4, Insightful
    No seriously, what exactly are the "ethical considerations" of a face transplant? What makes it more ethically significan't than a skin transplant anywhere else?

    And the "psychological impact" to the patient of looking different?? Looking different from a hideously scarred accident victim? Isn't that why they want surgery in the first place?

    This seems to me like a story desperately in search of sensationalism.

    1. Re:I'm confused.. by BarryNorton · · Score: 4, Insightful
      No seriously, what exactly are the "ethical considerations" of a face transplant?

      And the "psychological impact" to the patient of looking different?

      It's about having, to some degree, someone else's face.

      This is also why they're at pains to point out that the recipient does not look exactly like their donor.

      Just as people look back and can't understand why people were uncomfortable with the idea of someone else's blood running around their veins, or someone else's heart beating in their chest, so people might get over this idea - you apparently have.

      Have some imagination, though, and see why people have (it's true, and well-documented, not just sensationalism) been creeped out by this idea for decades...

  3. you dont look the same by jmazzi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even if you got a face transplant, you wouldn't look like the face of the donor. Your bone structure etc is what makes up most of your appearance. Although, you wouldn't like you use to. So I don't see how ethics would really take a roll in this matter.

  4. Re:Government and Health Care by pnewhook · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The same Canada that just voted their Congress out of office?
    Congress was not voted out of office. The opposition got together and forced the government to resign (a vote of non-confidence). This is extremely democratic - moreso than in the US where you are essentially stuck with the guy for four years, unless you actually manage to impeach the guy for something criminal.
    The same Canada that almost killed a friend of mine whose plane was grounded on 9/11, got a stomach flu and almost died in a Canadian hospital while he waited THREE DAYS for a doctor to see him?
    If it was just a stomach flu why didn't he just go to a walk-in clinic? He would have been assessed (for free) and had a prescripion in under an hour. If it was more serious, he would have been referred to a hospital that would then have been notified that he would be arriving and be ready for him.
    The same Canada where people are on waiting lists for years for a basic MRI that I can drive down the street here in the States and get in a mere hours?
    Years? Give me a break. I do agree that the wait time is long, and a huge issue, but it is on the order of weeks not years. Also if it is high priority, then there is no wait time - the scan gets done immediately.
    The Canadian health care system is a mess. I pray I am never doing business in Canada when I get ill.
    Funny, most people I know pray they don't live in the US when they get ill, as a major illness effectively means bankruptcy.
    --
    Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
  5. Psychological impact? by idommp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I grew up with one-quarter of my face missing in action. When I was two, doctors removed the upper left quadrant of my face including the eyelids and the skin down to the bottom of my nose. Twenty operations and fifteen years later I finally got working (but not very pretty) eyelids again. The person undergoing the face transplant has already suffered the psychological impact of loosing their original face and the impact of being treated like some kind of monster. The trauma of getting a different face can't possibly be any worse.

    1. Re:Psychological impact? by Tim+C · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The person undergoing the face transplant has already suffered the psychological impact of loosing their original face and the impact of being treated like some kind of monster.

      That really depends on the circumstances. I imagine that a lot of these operations would be performed immediately or very soon after the injuries were sustained (eg burns victims, etc). They may well still be adjusting to the idea of being disfigured, and - if the operation was performed soon enough - may not have had any contact with anyone other than medical staff, friends and family.

      --
      It's official. Most of you are morons.
  6. Not at all true. by Marc2k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did you know that in the US in 2006, more children will grow up in homes that have declared bankruptcy than will grow up with divorced parents?

    Did you also know that as of 2004, over 50% of all bankruptcies in the US are directly related to a major medical illness somewhere in the family?

    50% Medical Bankruptcy article (2005)
    Article stating number of bankruptcies in 1999 (~ 500,000 families)
    Article stating number of bankruptcies in 2001 (~ 1.5 million families)

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    --- What
  7. Re:Government and Health Care by mr_matticus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm with you 100% on personal responsibility, but I think you'll have to agree that other major Western democracies with healthcare systems do not produce these results. Canadians are much slimmer than Americans, as are the people in all of the EU states. The United States is one of the only (or maybe THE only) Western democracy without funded healthcare programs for its citizens. 65% of Americans are overweight or obese now. There's not really a causal relationship there, though.

    Fat and wasteful are becoming almost objectives in and of themselves for the "average" American. I don't think a functioning health care system in the US would lead to fatter people. I do think that people would continue getting heavier and lazier, but not having to pay out of pocket isn't the cause. Being American is the cause, with the mentality that has come to be dominant in our country.