Go-ahead for first full face transplants

[Shadow]

British surgeons seek five patients

The Guardian

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday December 16, 2005
The Guardian

British surgeons are preparing to carry out an unprecedented full face transplant operation next year after being granted ethical approval to actively seek patients. The 30-strong team headed by Peter Butler, a leading plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, was given the go-ahead by the hospital's bioethics committee yesterday. The announcement follows the partial face transplant in France last month of a woman whose face was mutilated by a dog.

The controversial operation has raised concerns, not least that some patients could suffer psychological trauma because their new appearance will resemble that of the donor. But several teams around the world have been pressing ahead, with surgeons in China and America among the contenders to perform the operation first.

Mr Butler's team spent more than 10 years researching the clinical and psychological aspects of the operation before spending the past three years clearing ethical hurdles. "We've had around 20 patients contact us in the past, but until now we've not been in a position to assess them for the operation. Now we can actively recruit patients," he said.

The team will initially select five patients with severe facial burns who will be subjected to psychological screening.

[Doc]

shadow said:

British surgeons seek five patients

The Guardian

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday December 16, 2005
The Guardian

British surgeons are preparing to carry out an unprecedented full face transplant operation next year after being granted ethical approval to actively seek patients. The 30-strong team headed by Peter Butler, a leading plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, was given the go-ahead by the hospital's bioethics committee yesterday. The announcement follows the partial face transplant in France last month of a woman whose face was mutilated by a dog.

The controversial operation has raised concerns, not least that some patients could suffer psychological trauma because their new appearance will resemble that of the donor. But several teams around the world have been pressing ahead, with surgeons in China and America among the contenders to perform the operation first.

Mr Butler's team spent more than 10 years researching the clinical and psychological aspects of the operation before spending the past three years clearing ethical hurdles. "We've had around 20 patients contact us in the past, but until now we've not been in a position to assess them for the operation. Now we can actively recruit patients," he said.

The team will initially select five patients with severe facial burns who will be subjected to psychological screening.

Reminds me of "Face Off" with Travolta and Cage.

I believe that it can be used for good. A blessing for rectifying burns, disfugurement, birth challenges, etc.......

One wonders about commonplace use of this, and covert uses.

[beatlies]

The orchestrated publicity around face transplants began this year in July in the USA when we were presented with a story that a female Polish physician in the U.S. declared she was going to perform a face transplant, an immoral medical act according to univerally accepted ethical standards in medicine.

Uncle Sam Wants You, or just your face.

Yet again, the anglo-American world leads in nauseatingly chipping away at medical ethics (such as Britains "Dolly the sheep(le) cloning) and opening the door to increasing human degradation, this time with NATO France as a token partner to get the ball rolling with the "partial face transplant" with a face stolen from a sucide victim.

That's just the public face ---do you ever wonder what they are doing in the secret laboratories?

[Shadow]

That's just the public face ---do you ever wonder what they are doing in the secret laboratories?

Do we really want to contemplate that for too long?