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Face Transplants

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Anonymous

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... think again, says plastic surgeon Peter Butler.

"Butler is calling for a debate about whether face transplants should take place. Mr. Butler said surgical techniques would allow the procedure to take place within the next six to nine months.

"But he said it was essential for a moral and ethical debate to take place before anyone underwent the operation.

"He told the BBC: "It is not 'Can we do it?' but 'Should we do it?'"

"Mr Butler, a consultant plastic surgeon at London's Royal Free Hospital, will discuss the issues surrounding face transplants at the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in London on Wednesday."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2516181.stm

I can see all kinds of weird shit here - imagine the reams of elderly Hollywood wives with fresh new visages and horribly shrivelled bodies. *shudders* Or someone you know suddenly looking completely different but behaving in the same way...
...or looking in the mirror and seeing a dead guy staring back at you....:eek!!!!:
 
Silence of the lambs as well, remember..:)

Elvis lookalikes or any of the impersonators would probably become very excited at such a grim notion.

Although.......how?....no, that would'nt make sense or work at all!

Ignore that!
 
Face News Here

A leading plastic surgeon is calling for a debate about whether face transplants should take place.
Peter Butler said surgical techniques would allow the procedure to take place within the next six to nine months.

But he said it was essential for a moral and ethical debate to take place before anyone underwent the operation.

He told the BBC: "It is not 'Can we do it?' but 'Should we do it?'"
 
I can imagine the benefits for someone who was disfigured through an accident or birth deformities in receiving a new face, but what about the psychological problems it could cause?
Seeing someone else in the mirror is a bit of a nightmare scenario, a bit too "Twilight Zone"ish for me to get my head around, especially with the knowledge that the person you are seeing is actually dead. *shudder*
 
The BBC have an interesting story on a woman who lost part of her face to cancer:

'Christine Piff has had to wear a facial prosthesis since she had face cancer 25 years ago.

Here, she tells the BBC why she might choose to have the operation - despite concerns over having someone else's face.'
 
Peter Butler says:

"While people would, in general, accept a face transplant if they required it, they would actually not be willing to donate."

Quelle surprise !


On a less flippant note, surely a donated face could/would never be quite the same on a new owner due to the different shape of the skull, bone structure etc... not to mention the possible difference in age of the new owners skin, skin colouring, hair etc... ?? The mind boggles.

I wonder (assuming the surgery goes ahead) if the surgeons will attempt to mould the new owner's bone structure to match that of the donor's for a 'better fit' of face ? Or if they will accept that the face will lie differently and simply adapt it to the existing bone structure of the new owner ?
 
The proposed transplants are of 2 types

The first involving just soft tissue which would be laid over the recipients own bone and thus would be little different to their original face. Think forensic facial reconstruction for how little part the soft tissue plays in appearance.

The second would be for people who have lost bone, such as cancer sufferers. Then the transplant would include the underlying bone as well. I doubt whether the eye sockets would be taken. I cannot see how that could work.
 
this is where partial bodypart cloning techniques would come in useful-
grow a new face (made from the cells of the person concerned) on an artificial skull armature.

Organ donation techniques cause too much bother with rejection, however they are well known procedures, whereas skin moulding is in its infancy.
 
Wouldn't the donee be left in a worse state if the tissue was rejected and had to be removed? :( I do think it's a good idea though, and I would donate. After I'm dead obviously. And I'd have to throw in some tweezers. :p
 
Wouldn't the donee be left in a worse state if the tissue was rejected and had to be removed?

Thats a rather horrifying thought beak.
 
It sounds like the plot of a 50's B movie.

Or you could do an adaptaion of "Phantom of the Opera" where the Phantom has had that happen.
 
Phantom of the Opera is horrific enough with Michael Crawford in it.
 
is it just me being cynical or is it another case of we only need another 6 months to perfect this so if you could just see your way to topping up our grant?

beakaboo,
the dark stage,the figure in black cloak,white mask,the soulful cry of"ooh Betty"....

no matter how much serious stuff michael crawford does,he will always be Frank Spencer.:)
 
Originally posted by intaglio
It sounds like the plot of a 50's B movie.

Not sure if Franju's "Yeux sans visage" of 1959 qualifies as a B movie
but it deals with the unsuccessful pioneering work of a Doctor who
seeks to give his daughter a new face. He doesn't fancy waiting around
for the donors to get wrinkly so he circumvents the old consent
notion, kidnapping pretty ladies. The grafts don't take, so she gets through
several faces, their bodies being chucked in the Seine.

Notorious in its day for the refusal of the camera to avert its gaze during the
bloody operations, I suppose its black and white grand guignol would seem
pretty tame to our Van Hagens generation. :eek!!!!:
 
I feel like this will create a new UL. Supermodel wakes up with bangages around her face and a note saying call the doctor. Her face has been stolen and sold on the black market! Of course, I guess it would be kinda of easy to tell who bought it.
 
Maybe this means Face Off will come true! So John Travolta could get Nicholas Cage's face and...

Ok, I'll shut up. :p

I still think this is really creepy though. What about the dead person's relatives? How would they feel seeing their dead family member walking around with a different body? :eek:
 
Spooky angel said:
What about the dead person's relatives? How would they feel seeing their dead family member walking around with a different body? :eek:
The donee wouldn't look anything like the donor Spooky. The underlying bone structure would be different for a start, and the eyes. A human face is a very subtle thing. If I were a donor (which I would like if I'm still gorgeous when I die :p ) they probably would recognise the incredible whiteness of my skin, but that's all.
 
You've heard the phrase the face that launched a thousand ships... Well, mine has launched a thousand dredgers. :D
I could do with a new one for Christmas. Something similar to Tom Cruise will be fine.

Big Bill Robinson
 
Naah. I just thought it was a hideously dreadful hash of a direction job. What the hell is Woo's appeal anyway? Glorified fight arranger...
 
girl to have face transplant

transplant story from thisislondon.com

The first person ever to receive a face transplant is likely to be a 16-year-old Irish girl who suffered horrific injuries as a baby when her father's car exploded into flames.

Lena Marie Murphy will have the surgery at the Royal Free Hospital in north London within months in an operation which will make medical history.

Once a board of ethics, headed by Falklands War veteran Simon Weston has given the go-ahead, Lena will receive the face of a dead donor, removing her own severely burned face.

The operation is likely to take place after the teenager has sat the Irish equivalent of her GCSE exams, and will end a race between British and American surgeons to be the first to perform the transplant, which was once the stuff of science fiction.

The surgery involves "degloving" the donor's face from a four-hour-old corpse, severing the top layer of skin and then grafting it onto the recipient's face.

It will be carried out by Peter Butler, a surgeon at the Royal Free, who has yet to meet Lena. He said she will undergo psychiatric and psychological assessment.


Degloving? DEGLOVING??? What a phrase...
 
As long as she doesn't end up looking like John Travolta, good for her. ^^
 
Let's just hope that Jade Goody doesn't get hit by a bus and hold a donor card.
 
As long as she doesn't peel it off and then bite a paramedic, cool. She could have one for casual, and one for formal.
 
ew

:_omg:

Coming soon to a theater near you...THE DEGLOVER...
AHhhh!:eek!!!!:
 
What an outstanding verb they've coined: to deglove!

I love it, can't you just imagine seedy characters getting a poor young girl drunk, following her home and attempting to deglove her! It sounds wonderfully sordid. (ok - i'll shut up now before the true level of my perversity becomes known):D
 
The term 'degloving' has been around for a long time in forensics and pathology.

............. nah, you don't want to know.
 
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