About Face: the Face Transplant Debate
About Face: The Face Transplant Debate
By Sherri L. Rodney-Kahle
HCA 322 Health Care Ethics and Medical Law
Professor Dolores Thomas
July 13, 2009
About Face – The Great Face Transplant Debate The first successful human organ transplant in the United States was performed on December 23, 1954. On that date, a kidney was successfully transplanted, with the organ donated by a living identical twin of the recipient (Kaserman, 2007). More than fifty years have now passed since that first successful human organ transplant and since then, organ transplantation has moved from the experimental stage to assume an important role in the treatment of organ failure stemming from a wide variety of underlying causes. Today, kidneys, hearts, livers, lungs, and other organs are routinely transplanted to patients whose lives would otherwise soon be ended. Moreover, unlike some life-extending measures that substantially lower the quality of life, where organ transplants succeed, recipients’ health can be restored dramatically. It is only natural that phenomenal strides in transplant science and surgery now present society with a much different and complex prospect: transplantation of the human face. Until recently, transplant procedures were done only in life-threatening cases, and transplanted organs were internal and non-visible. Essential to each of us and to the whole of humanity, the face is primal in its individual image and identity. It is intrinsically connected with us in a way that defied question—until now. The mere idea that surgeons could remove a deceased person’s face for use by someone else elicits responses ranging from thoughtful contemplation to revulsion. Surgery to transplant human facial tissue to another creates discomfort because of a face’s personal nature as essential to individuality and identity. In essence, the ability to perform such surgeries has become a volatile ethical subject of public debate, which raises the question:
By Sherri L. Rodney-Kahle
HCA 322 Health Care Ethics and Medical Law
Professor Dolores Thomas
July 13, 2009
About Face – The Great Face Transplant Debate The first successful human organ transplant in the United States was performed on December 23, 1954. On that date, a kidney was successfully transplanted, with the organ donated by a living identical twin of the recipient (Kaserman, 2007). More than fifty years have now passed since that first successful human organ transplant and since then, organ transplantation has moved from the experimental stage to assume an important role in the treatment of organ failure stemming from a wide variety of underlying causes. Today, kidneys, hearts, livers, lungs, and other organs are routinely transplanted to patients whose lives would otherwise soon be ended. Moreover, unlike some life-extending measures that substantially lower the quality of life, where organ transplants succeed, recipients’ health can be restored dramatically. It is only natural that phenomenal strides in transplant science and surgery now present society with a much different and complex prospect: transplantation of the human face. Until recently, transplant procedures were done only in life-threatening cases, and transplanted organs were internal and non-visible. Essential to each of us and to the whole of humanity, the face is primal in its individual image and identity. It is intrinsically connected with us in a way that defied question—until now. The mere idea that surgeons could remove a deceased person’s face for use by someone else elicits responses ranging from thoughtful contemplation to revulsion. Surgery to transplant human facial tissue to another creates discomfort because of a face’s personal nature as essential to individuality and identity. In essence, the ability to perform such surgeries has become a volatile ethical subject of public debate, which raises the question:
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