Face transplantation to go ahead in UK

Ten British people have put their names forward to become the first in the world to undergo a face transplant

Surgeons insist the procedure, which involves transplanting an entire face from a corpse to a living person, will only be available for patients with the most severe facial disfigurements - and not as a cosmetic vanity treatment

www.thisislondon.com...


Can you imagine this! Seeing your dead relatives face on someone else.
Kinda makes me feel sick! What do you all think about it?
Is it a good idea, or do you feel the same as me, in that its totally disgusting!

This should only be as complicated as a skin graft, but for you to see your dead aunty, the person would have to have almost exact same bone structure. I wouldn't want to waste my time or money with it though, I would rather stay deformed. Just a matter of time before this would become the next " beauty trend" . Ridiculous

many plastic surgery items are taken from corpses, collagen to a face is still a big jump

It's gross as hell though, kind of like that Nic Cage movie

Originally posted by mooseofterror
This should only be as complicated as a skin graft, but for you to see your dead aunty, the person would have to have almost exact same bone structure. I wouldn't want to waste my time or money with it though, I would rather stay deformed. Just a matter of time before this would become the next " beauty trend" . Ridiculous

Yep i agree the bone structure would have to be the same, but they would probably bear more than a passing reseblance to the dead person.

As for beauty trend, yep i can imagine 50 year olds having the face of a 20 year old put on. Not movie stars though as they need to be recognised.
It all a bit too gross for me though!

the thought of face transplantation to me is quite frightening, i would rather have no face than somebody else's.
heres a few things i was wondering,
how many people would actually donate the face of a recently deceased family member/loved one to another person?
would you bury a loved one/relative without a face?
how would you feel if you saw some other person with your loved ones face?

That's really weird. Like someone else mentioned, it's like Face/Off with Nicholas cage & John Travolta. I don't know if it's a good idea or not. Personally, I think I would rather have a disfigured face rather then the face of another. I can see how it could be considered by some, though. It would probably be regarded as a whole new chance at life.

Wow, thats pretty wierd. Reminds me of face off abit

I think it's creepy. looking into the mirror at yourself, but your not you anymore, and what if someone who knew the person your now wearing on your face mistook you for them? What would you say, umm actually my doctor ripped joe's face off and sewed it onto mine?? how bizarre i'd rather be marred for life than wear someone else's identity on my face.

That kind of makes the stomach churn... Or maybe it was the soup I had for lunch...

I think that is a bit gross... It's one thing to donate your deceased loved one's organ so that another might live, but to donate their face? That serves no purpose. I can understand the desperation that someone might feel, that is a victim of severe facial disfiguration, but we are more than the sum of our looks...

I'd suggest the scientific community consider growing faces, much like they are now able to grow Organs such as the ear they grew on the back of a mouse several years ago. It's far more individual and personal, one's face is like a finger print, its who you are.

In fairness the doctors said they would have to discuss the ethical ramifications of this procedure.

Personally I am ambivalent to it. On one hand it could become a fad for the wealthy with people buying faces (which creates it's own black market!) whereas people who have suffered horrific accidents could lead a life without persecution from the majority of people who stare and mock them.

I can see why people who have disfigurements would want to change their appearance, but at what cost. Then again we are moving quickly into the future and technology is changing. I can remember when the idea of fingerprint id at buildings was science fiction. Now it is a very common way to clock into where you work. We had it at the last company I worked for.
If those people who have disfigurements want a change then let them have it I say!

Originally posted by Kiwifish
I can see why people who have disfigurements would want to change their appearance, but at what cost. Then again we are moving quickly into the future and technology is changing. I can remember when the idea of fingerprint id at buildings was science fiction. Now it is a very common way to clock into where you work. We had it at the last company I worked for.
If those people who have disfigurements want a change then let them have it I say!

If something is availible to them, of course, they should have the opportunity to change it. I know if I were horribly disfigured I would want to be able to change my appearance to one that is somewhat normal, but I don't know if I could go for the option of having a face transplant. I'm not in the situation, though, and hope I never will be.

if it was used in reconstruction then surely they could use the donor face along with old photos to produce something near the way the patients looked before and not a copy of the donor.

Originally posted by andhow
I can understand the desperation that someone might feel, that is a victim of severe facial disfiguration, but we are more than the sum of our looks...

...Even though, in today's society, that's the first thing that most people will judge another by?...This is merely a fantasy, to think that *no one* judges others by looks alone because it's simply a false assumption. It isn't fair, it isn't right, but it's true nonetheless.

Still, I wouldn't want to wear anyone else's face...What if the "donor" of my new face was killed by a hitman who sees *me* & decides he has to make up for his "failure"?...

I tried to say somthinga bout this, but I'm at a lost other than THAT'S GROSS

[Edited on 13-11-2003 by glan]

We can go out without fear of children screaming, people staring, etc., if someone needs this to be able to function and to go out and not be hounded by people then why not? If someone has such a bad deformity that this their only option though it might seem gross to some of you, it might make someone else life more bearable then I think its a great thing. Several years ago I ran into an elderly lady I knew in a department store. She had lost all of her hair but a few wisps due to chemo treatment and was not wearing a wig, if you think society is kind to those who look a little different then think again, while talking to her, people walked by and pointed her out loudly to those they were with, laughed at her, children screamed, "Look at the bald lady!" and their mothers instead of reprimanding them for being rude stared and laughed too. These people's rude and uncaring behavior was what I thought was gross.

I read a magazine article about a man who had his face bitten of by a giant male chimp.

The man was walking to his banana plantation when the giant chimp attacked. It beat him up and then left him. But a little female chimp went up and whispered something in the male chimp's ear, and then the male chimp turned around and went back and bit the man's face off. I saw the picture.

He pretended he was dead after a while (the chimp had thrown him into a ditch) and the chimps went away.