What Are Your Thoughts About Face Transplants?

[AutumnMist]

I don't see any bad thing coming from them, but a friend of mine raised a good point about your face being something that is not your own and having to deal with maybe a different face when you see yourself in the mirror. I thought about that. Just the being different part, but I also thought about burn victims and how their face would be different as well. Should this be something that we should do? Do you foresee any emotional repercussions with the transplant recipients? What counseling should we have in place? And how should we open this option for surgery to the public. If it were to happen in the United States and become a regular surgical occurrence, how would you approach it?

[XemaSab]

1. I think it's a good idea

First of all your "face" is determined by your bones and muscles, so if I got Angelina Jolie's face, I wouldn't look like her.

Secondly I think it would be odd for scarred people or burned people to have someone else's face, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad as going through life horribly scarred. Not by a long shot.

Even if it gets to the point where rich women are having skin transplants, who really cares? They suck anyways, and if they're getting the skin of dead people, they're not hurting anyone but themselves with their insecurities.

Here's a link with a picture of the recipient:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11198533/

It's clearly not something one would have done unless one was desperate.

[pitohui]

2. i think it's great that this technology is emerging to help people

jeebus on a crutch, if you've had your face chewed off by a crazed dog,as happened to one of the first face transplant victims, would you rather look at a bloody hole in the mirror or a "face not your own?"

i sometimes wonder abt the sanity of the anti-plastic surgery crowd, i honestly do

an unfamiliar face is better than no face

what counseling do we need? why do we assume someone is crazy because something bad happened to them? it's offensive, frankly, a burn victim or dog attack victim or gunshot victim should be able to get a new face w.out some paid busybody putting their hands in their psyche and their pocketbook, you'd think the poor surgical recipient had been through quite enough without some parasite forcing "counseling" on them

[Benfea]

5. You're making generalizations.

People who have a problem with plastic surgery have a problem with unnecessary, voluntary plastic surgery done to live up to society's demeaning standards of physical appearance applied to women.

I have a big problem with unnecessary cosmetic surgery, but any kind of reconstructive plastic surgery is vitally necessary. As someone else said, "would you rather have no face or a changed face?" I think we would all choose the latter if we got horrible burns or got our faces chewed off by a dog.

[Road Scholar]

3. My 10th grade geometry teacher needed one. (really bad) nt

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Karenca]

4. Having a face is better than having no face at all

I can't even imagine the emotional pain that woman went through.