First Face Transplant 446
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."
Well, whose face did she get? (Score:4, Funny)
I wouldn't want either.
Re:Well, whose face did she get? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, whose face did she get? (Score:4, Funny)
Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Interesting)
What if a person commits a crime and uses this surgery to escape identification and/or conviction.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Informative)
The muscle and bone structure underneath the skin make up most of the identifying features of a person's face. While it won't be exact, with replacement skin you should look more like your "old self" than like the person who's donating the skin (save for color and blemishes).
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Informative)
Doctors stress the woman will not look like her donor, but nor will she look like she did before the attack - instead she will have a "hybrid" face.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Funny)
What kind of gas mileage will she get on it?
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
What if he wears a mask during the crime!
What about fingerprints, DNA, and "ordinary", Maichael-Jackson-style, plastic surgery?
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Funny)
I far more easy and less expensive to use a set of Groucho glasses, nose and moustache to do that.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Interesting)
Never heard of it happening for faces, but bone marrow transplants can, and do, mess up [newscientist.com] forensic DNA analysis.
Yikes!
...laura
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Insightful)
"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.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Informative)
A live person is missing a face. A dead person doesn't need theirs any more. Where's the problem?
From the article:
"Where donors would come from is one issue that would have to be considered. "The transplant would have to come from a beating heart donor. So, say your sister was in intensive care, you would have to agree to allow their face to be removed before the ventilator was switched off. "And there is the possibility that the donor would then carry on breathing."
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
Looks like a job for Gil the ARM.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Informative)
This doesn't happen if the brain death testing is done properly. In Austraila one of the tests for brain death is that the person is disconnected from the ventilator for 20 minutes. If they breathe, they aren't truly brain dead. If you have proper criteria for brain death - A known cause of brain injury, meet several inclusion criteria (such as the aponea test mentioned above) and don't have any exclusion criteria that can look similar (eg recent anaesthesia/ low body temperature) then you can be considered as an organ donor.
In reality, people without brainstem function are very hard to keep alive on a ventilator, because the brain regulates alot of things. For example, the brain constantly releases a constant stream of anti diuretic hormone from the pituitary gland to regulate the total amount of water in your body. With brain death this stops and the kidneys will produce the maximal amount of urine (20+ litres/day), so fluid balance fails drastically.
I have seen less experienced people not understand the proper definition of brain death - I think that this is where you get the stories about turning off ventilators and people surviving. Brain death is a rapidly termainal condition. That is why so many heart transplants are done in the middle of the night - its hard to keep the donor alive until even the next morning.
Just FYI
Michael
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:4, Funny)
"Hey, little Timmy, we've got good news and bad news. The good news is someone just died a few minutes ago so you're getting a new face. The bad news is the person who's recently died is a 96 year old {insert optional racial type of your choice} woman..."
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Interesting)
If a doctor wants to perform this surgery for a patient that wants it, awesome!
I do believe we need to see a change in how parts are donated, though. Honestly, I would love to say "If my family can get $x,000 for this part and $xx,000 for that part when I am brain dead, then
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
Problem is the person making the decision to pull the plug (and cut off your face and other organs) would have a financial incentive to do so. Of course, they could already hate you.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
Re:Government and Health Care (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Government and Health Care (Score:3, Interesting)
Someone I know was living in Canada when they injured their back. The injury was declared to be "not life threatening." Because of this the wait time for the MRI was quite long. More than four months (16 weeks in your time.) During the time between the MRI and the injury this woman was in extreme pain and unable to move from a laying position.
She eventually found a way to get into a private MRI (a
Not at all true. (Score:4, Insightful)
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 [commondreams.org] (2005)
Article stating number of bankruptcies in 1999 (~ 500,000 families) [commondreams.org]
Article stating number of bankruptcies in 2001 (~ 1.5 million families) [healthaffairs.org]
Whoa, whoa, whoa (Score:4, Informative)
What about malpractice insurance? This is probably the #1 cause of inflated health care prices, our overly-litigious society is effectively killing services, private and governmental, while trial lawyers are cleaning up.
It's not all the government's fault, Captain Industry.
Re:Whoa, whoa, whoa (Score:3, Interesting)
I think you CAN blame an overreaching Congress, here. The insurance companies are, of course, pushing Congress to mandate buying insurance. Any mandate causes the price to go up. Yet many laws on the books that criminalize cocaine, heroine/opiates, and even marijuana cause the prices of drugs to go up as well (legal ones).
Here [lewrockwell.com] is a decent article regarding the health care problem and how over-regulation and over-mandation (is that a word, editors?) is causing the nightmare.
My doct
Re:Whoa, whoa, whoa (Score:3, Insightful)
I would argue it's capitalistic health care.
My insurance hasn't turned to shit over the last two years because of socialism. It's because the "not for profit" insurance companies have decided they need hundreds of millions of dollars in profit every year, and have found any number of ways to achieve it, including:
- Raising co-payment fees
- Covering fewer prescription drugs
- Limiting prescription drug coverage to a certain number of doses per month
- Adding asinin
Re:Whoa, whoa, whoa (Score:3, Insightful)
I _would_ abe willing to try a government of anyone if we were guaranteed a few things:
1. A 100% gold-backed currency. Wars are fought and corporations are built on counterfeit money.
2. No politician serving more than 15,000 citizens. I think I'd rather have one representative who knows me rather than 35 who don't.
3. No law can pass without 73% o
Re:Government and Health Care (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Government and Health Care (Score:3, Insightful)
Fat and wasteful are
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
Even if we say that's a-ok, because the doner is dead and this is giving somebody who's presently got no face a face.. What if you meet their family in passing? What happens when face transplants move out of this arena and into the plastic surgeon's box of tools?
Faces are hugely important to our interactions with the world, and our own self image - more than anything else (DNA, finerprints, retinas, etc.), your face is y
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
Off course that other factors that do not depend on the skull it self are going to be the same from the dead doonor, so the face will have some characteristics of the donnor and some of the receiver.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Insightful)
According to the article, that you apparently didn't read: "In the controversial operation, tissues, muscles, arteries and veins were taken from a brain-dead donor and attached to the patient's lower face."
"Brain-dead" doesn't mean the donor wasn't alive.
It added that the woman - who wishes to remain anonymous - was in "excellent general health" and said the graft looked normal.
This was nothing more than a skin
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Informative)
Living donors are not a problem because they're brain dead. So cutting off someone's face is scary; do so while they're still breathing (via ventilator) is really creepy. Yet, we pull hearts out of living people already so what's the face?
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well according to the article, she couldn't speak or eat properly. (Okay, I don't eat properly, but that is by "choice", sort of.)
That would be pretty close to medically necessary. It's not strictly "cosmetic".
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:3, Funny)
I had surgery last year and they wanted to put bone marrow and bone fragments in me from an UNKNOWN DEAD donor.. Like hell. I opted for a different type of surgery that where they used my own bone fragments for the fusion.
I also donated blood to my ownself in advance so that I would have it if I needed it. With all the fonky diseases they keep coming up with there is no way in hell I will accept body parts or fluids from another person, e
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:5, Interesting)
Transplanting a face is a PR stunt and MAYBE an academic exercise. It should not be standard treatment procedure. The article, by citing "10,000 burn patients in the UK", is trying to trump this sort of thing up to standard procedure.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Ethical concerns? (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm confused.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:2)
Ever seen the faces on the post office wall? Or on the side of a milk carton? Or mug shots or headshots used in a pictorial line up or even a real line up?
There is little ethical consideration for getting your bobbies bigger. But doctors would be up against a pretty big wall if they had to choose whether or not to completely change somebody's face.
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, I gotta ask.
What the hell are you talking about? What does any of that have to do with face transplants?
Are you suggesting criminals would use this to hide from prosecution? Not only is the appearance change likely to be minimal (since the bone structure is the same), but nothing stops them from having plastic surgery RIGHT NOW.
You sound li
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:3, Funny)
Of course I'm sure officer! I'd recognize those breasts anywhere!
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:5, Interesting)
The ethical implications would come from the process of removing the identity from someone who may or may not be dead and effectively erasing the identity of the recipient when the transplant is complete and he looks like someone different.
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, I read about them considering doing this a few months back. Apparently your face looks like your face mostly due to the particular's of your underlying bones...so if you get a face transplant you actually look pretty much like you did before. Obviously some de
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Luckily, a lot of your appearance comes not from the soft tissue of the face, but from the underlying bone structure. A person who gets a face transplant wouldn't have the same visage as they used to have, but they wouldn't have the visage of the donor, either.
I would assume that the "looking in the mirror" problem would be no greater for a face transplant recipient than it would be for a person who experiences some other massive change to their face, such as whatever damaged it so much in the first place or reconstructive surgery.
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:2)
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm confused.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Best of both worlds (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Best of both worlds (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Best of both worlds (Score:5, Funny)
Settle down, champ. They didn't say anything about a brain transplant.
In other news (Score:4, Funny)
Re:In other news (Score:2, Funny)
In an unrelated story, a young white woman who lived near the hospital is still missing.
Re:In other news (Score:3, Funny)
Earlier articles... (Score:2)
Face Jacking? (Score:3, Funny)
yuck (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:yuck (Score:3, Funny)
Re:yuck (Score:3, Interesting)
Not sure, but nerves have been reconnected in plenty of other procedures over the years.
Wouldn't it feel like having a thick layer of dead skin on your face all the time, I mean I'd want to pull it off continually.
People get sensitized to constant stimulation. Ever forgot that you had a hat on and had to use your hand to figure it out? Ever want to pull your hair off your head because there is a bunch of dead protein laying there?
I'm not saying it might be weird or
You get used to it (Score:4, Informative)
So that's how (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So that's how (Score:3, Insightful)
What better way to undermine democracy in the West?
Not technically a complete face transplant (Score:2, Funny)
The doctors said they replaced the lips, nose, and chin. Sounds like half the people in Hollywood if you ask me.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]Not dead... (Score:2)
A revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization.
Oh wait, is this a movie [imdb.com]?
Creepy other faces (Score:2)
Ethical concerns.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Someone's already supposedly cloned a human embryo. I wouldn't worry about facial transplants too much.
you dont look the same (Score:4, Insightful)
Music to do face transplants by.... (Score:2)
This was followed by "The Real Me" by the Who and the Pixies' "Broken Face."
Re:Music to do face transplants by.... (Score:2)
hmm, what would I want, chewed face or anothers? (Score:2)
Or maybe there is more concern over the situation depicted in the film, "Face off"?
For the people involved in the reconstruction, I hope it works out well.
LoB
Thus come all of the stupid "Face/Off" replies. (Score:2, Funny)
[holding sides laughing] Oh, GOD! "Face/Off"! I would never have thought of that! Oh, that is SO-O-O-O funny! I'm laughing too hard! Oh, look! Another reference! Please! Stop![/holding sides laughing]
There. I hope the "Face/Off" people
We can regrow ears ! (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1107/features/body.htm [pbs.org]
Mexican drug lord died a few years back - ??? (Score:2, Informative)
Anyone else remember this?
Ethical Concerns Have Validity (Score:2, Interesting)
Counselling (Score:2)
From the no hyperbole dept..
First ever? (Score:2, Funny)
Is there a doctor in the house? (Score:5, Interesting)
Or would a skin sample from the transplant area show different DNA for all time?
I'm genuinely curious. Is there a doctor in the house?
DG
Re:Is there a doctor in the house? (Score:5, Informative)
Issues? (Score:2)
I would have thought that the patient would have had to confront that problem already.
I dont see this being any different to major organ transplant, just the media having else to report.
Psychological impact? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Psychological impact? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:nigger transplant (Score:2, Funny)
Wrong media (Score:5, Funny)
no, from Tony Hawk, after all, they just did a faceplant...
Karma, karma burning bright...
Re:Wow (Score:3, Insightful)
For example, in Arsenic and Old Lace [imdb.com], one of the plot points involved a criminal whose looks have been altered to resemble Boris Karloff. In the stage play, this part was actually performed by Karloff.
Re:Yikes! That was arrrough.... (Score:2)
Funny. Where do you think most organs for transplants come from? I'm pretty sure there aren't any living heart donors. It's OK to accept hearts, kidneys, lungs and corneas from cadavers, but faces cross the line. Not that I disagree with you, but it's interesting how our perceptions are tainted like that.
Re:pain in the.... (Score:3, Funny)
Now THAT would be suspicious!