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Keywords: “face transplant”
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Description
French surgeons successfully completed the first transplantation of human facial tissue from a deceased patient to a 38-year old woman who had previously sustained facial injuries as a result of a dog attack. What are the ethical implications of the use of such a procedure? Is this the beginning of a slippery slope to a new kind of cosmetic surgery? The blogosphere is heating up on the topic. This is a weblog search feed to follow the conversation. [FEED]
Recent Comments in the Blogosphere
Horatio on Dodecahedron: An Online Magazine
“I’m not making the claim that French medicine is any better than ours (nor would I refute such a claim), but seeing as French doctors, in France, just performed the world’s first face transplant (!), what’s clear to me is that innovation is still part of the gameplan. Anti-GHCFAA* advocates are constantly rolling out that old “innovation will suffer” canard, insisting that socialized medicine will result in a catastrophic slowdown in the pace of research and invention. Well, if that’s true, why didn’t we perform the first ever face transplant? Why weren’t we, Land Of Innovation, surfing down the front end of that learning curve?”
Allan Bellows on Damn Interesting
This operation was the first of its kind in the world, and if the patient’s body doesn’t reject the skin, she will not look like she used to look, nor will she look like her donor, but somewhere in between. Hopefully she will also regain her ability to speak and eat properly, which she has been unable to do since the attack. But because skin is so prone to rejection, she will have to take high levels of immunosupressants for long periods of time, perhaps for the rest of her life. These drugs increase the risk of disease and cancer.
Mr. Wales on A Long Way from Anywhere
Weird…I guess she got mauled by a dog and is getting a person who is brain deads face. I can understand the ethical dilemma involved in that. But, like any other transplant, there is the chance that her body will reject it. Hmmm what do you do when your body doesn’t like your face…Do they take if off and leave with ???.
Other Resources
Wikipedia article on Face Transplantation
Tags: face transplant, transplantation, france, surgery, blogtracks
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