Surgeons warn of face transplant race [Guardian UK]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1088854,00.html

Surgeons warn of face transplant race

James Meikle, health correspondent
Thursday November 20, 2003
The Guardian

Surgeons were yesterday urged not to compete in a "face race" for the first face transplant despite confidence that technical expertise was close to making the procedure possible.

Ethical, legal and moral issues as well as psychological consequences for patients and the families of donors needed far more investigation, as did the risks of the body rejecting skin, fat and muscle tissue, concluded a report from the Royal College of Surgeons.

The college president, Professor Sir Peter Morris, said: "We do not feel the time is appropriate to see this experimental procedure. The microsurgical skills and anatomical knowledge required to carry out facial transplantations are already well established.

"But facial transplantation is not only a matter of technical achievement. We must also take into consideration the psychological impact on the recipient and on the donor family, and the considerable long-term risks of the need for lifetime immunosuppression drugs."

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and here i thought "face off" with nicholas cage was fakey.

Tonight's episode of Smallville featured a guy who had his face and voice completely surgically altered, to go from looking like Rutger Hauer to some middle-aged New-York-cab-driver type.

A couple of weeks ago, the Smallville storyline involved the largest solar flare in recorded history playing havoc with Clark Kent's powers. This episode aired on the very day that one of the largest solar flares in history hit the Earth.

Now if only they would air an episode where Clark stops the war in Iraq and brings our troops home...

I think Michael Jackson already beat them to the punch.

Or maybe he WANTS to ... he needs a new identity jiffy quick. Marrying Lisa Marie ain't gonna help him this time!

take skin from his ass for the transplant and it would be an improvement.

I thought I was going to hear GEN Buck Turgidson shouting at the President "We cannot let the commies obtain a Face Transplant advantage!!!"