Facial Transplants - Should we? - Page 2

Ramrod · 11-11-2003, 16:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by towny

OK, given that:
1. You're not likely to meet the recipient of your loved one's donated face, and
2. You're unlikely to recognise the face anyway;

If you did meet them, and you did recognise the face, how might you react? Sorry to be so persistent, the more I think about this the more it gives me the wobblies.

Ah! Pinned me down then

.
It would freak me out!

SMHarman · 11-11-2003, 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by towny

OK, given that:
1. You're not likely to meet the recipient of your loved one's donated face, and
2. You're unlikely to recognise the face anyway;

If you did meet them, and you did recognise the face, how might you react? Sorry to be so persistent, the more I think about this the more it gives me the wobblies.

Well like it or not you would know that they donated so the shock must be mitigated to a large extent.

I think the face would look much like the pre disfigurment face of the recipient, not the donor. Its basically an overcomplicated skin graft. If you take the skin off your bum and put it on your arm, it does not look like your bum. By the time its in place it will look so much like the recipient you would not know who the donor was.

From a movie fiction Point of View. In Face off when they did this, they used implants etc to ensure he looked alike. This all got most confusing when they started beating the pulp out of each other, surely you would damage the structure holding your face together (thats your face as its on the other guy).

Rubber Duck · 11-11-2003, 17:41

I agree with it for medical reasons but some people would try to talk doctors (& probably offer a lot of money) for doing the facial transplants for cosmetic purposes which would be wrong

11-11-2003, 18:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

I agree with it for medical reasons but some people would try to talk doctors (& probably offer a lot of money) for doing the facial transplants for cosmetic purposes which would be wrong

One can have the currently available plastic surgery to radically alter their appearance to the extent that you could very well claim that they had a "new" face. I fail to see any difference between this and a whole face transplant. The former can be done for cosmetic reasons, so logically so can the latter.

**Chris** · 11-11-2003, 18:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

If you take the skin off your bum and put it on your arm, it does not look like your bum.

I never thought of it like that ... now that would be a sight. See him over there? He can't tell his @rse from his elbow, he can't...

**Maggy** · 11-11-2003, 19:06

incog feeling queasy at the thought.stupid i know but there it is.

however i think this is an issue best left to those who would be offered such an operation.

i personally wouldn't want to wish my phizzog to anyone.

Salu · 12-11-2003, 10:56

We've debated the issues surrounding recognition but what about the blackmarket issues surrounding this? If the technology is there what is to stop criminals changing their identity for example?

The problem of going down this road is the criminal fraternity perverting a potential medical breakthrough again.

SHould you stop the scientists from developing this in a censoring sort of a way for fear of the criminal or allow them for the medical benefit and then try and outlaw them.

SMHarman · 12-11-2003, 11:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

We've debated the issues surrounding recognition but what about the blackmarket issues surrounding this? If the technology is there what is to stop criminals changing their identity for example?

The problem of going down this road is the criminal fraternity perverting a potential medical breakthrough again.

SHould you stop the scientists from developing this in a censoring sort of a way for fear of the criminal or allow them for the medical benefit and then try and outlaw them.

But its not going to change their fingerprints, dna or other identifying biometrics.

Cosmetic surgery should be able to provide a better transformation for a criminal than a face transplant.

Salu · 12-11-2003, 11:11

Maybe not now.....but hand transplants are possible right now. Eye transplants......who knows?

OK. DNA is fairly robust.......at present...

Forensics aside. If you are Britains most wanted Criminal a face transplant would buy a lot of grace....

SMHarman · 12-11-2003, 11:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Maybe not now.....but hand transplants are possible right now. Eye transplants......who knows?

OK. DNA is fairly robust.......at present...

Forensics aside. If you are Britains most wanted Criminal a face transplant would buy a lot of grace....

Maybe, but if technology and science advances to that point, maybe we'll just do brain and major organ transplants from a living person to a dead person.

Of if you are a sufficiently heavy hitter in the criminal fraternity you will be able to find a suitable living donor, the streets will no longer be littered with homeless, the will rehouse the criminal mind.

Ramrod · 19-11-2003, 18:36

New Scientist

**Chris** · 19-11-2003, 20:09

I heard the professor on Radio 4 this morning ... he says that experiments on dead people showed the face, once transplanted, looks neither like the donor nor the recipient. So I'm slightly less freaked out!

Ramrod · 19-11-2003, 20:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by towny

I heard the professor on Radio 4 this morning ... he says that experiments on dead people showed the face, once transplanted, looks neither like the donor nor the recipient. So I'm slightly less freaked out!

Slightly more comforting, yes.
However that was only on cadavers. Cadavers faces look remarkably different to how they did when they were alive.

**Chris** · 19-11-2003, 23:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramrod

Slightly more comforting, yes.
However that was only on cadavers. Cadavers faces look remarkably different to how they did when they were alive.

OK, so we're talking about dead bodies. Now I'm freaked again.

A sudden thought (courtesy of Mrs towny sitting next to me) - isn't there some kind of social taboo about picking someone else's nose or squeezing their zits?

Ramrod · 19-11-2003, 23:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by towny

OK, so we're talking about dead bodies. Now I'm freaked again.

A sudden thought (courtesy of Mrs towny sitting next to me) - isn't there some kind of social taboo about picking someone else's nose or squeezing their zits?

Possibly, but it would still be your bogey and your pus