Are Face Transplants Ethical? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Are Face Transplants Ethical?

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... you could visit your local beauty salon and get a new face in ten minutes right before the Friday night party. The question is: is this morally ok? – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Are Face Transplants Ethical?


1
Are Face Transplants Ethical?
  • By Rahul Gladwin
  • University of Health Sciences Antigua
  • School of Medicine

2
So what is a face transplant?
  • Have you seen the movie Face-Off starring
    Nicholas Cage and John Travolta? This fantasy
    movie provides a glimpse into the futuristic
    world, where face transplants would be a norm.
    Currently, however, doctors across the world are
    only beginning to fully understand and carry-out
    this complex and questionable procedure.

3
Why are face transplants unique?
  • Face transplants are unique because, unlike a
    kidney transplant or a heart transplant, face
    transplants are not necessary and are performed
    solely due to cosmetic reasons. A disfigured face
    is not a life threatening situation. Another
    consideration is that face transplants are very
    new no one knows how the body will react to a
    rejected face, or what are the long-term effects
    of taking anti-rejection drugs for face
    transplants.

4
Worlds first face transplant
  • The worlds first full-face transplant was
    performed in 1994 by Dr. Abraham Thomas, M.D.,
    one of Indias prominent microsurgeons. This
    wasnt a movie, but a real surgery to save the
    life of a nine-year-old girl, whos face was
    destroyed due to a lawnmower accident, and
    surgeons simply reattached the girls original
    face. This surgery was inspired by previous
    failed attempts by US and British surgeons.

5
Face transplant from donor
  • The worlds first partial face transplant from
    donor to acceptor was performed in November 2005
    by a team of French surgeons led by Professor
    Jean-Michel Dubernard. This was performed on a
    women whos face was mangled by a dog. Surgeons
    took a triangular piece of face tissue from a
    brain-dead donors nose and mouth, and grafted it
    onto the patients face. This complex procedure
    was performed within one month of the accident.

6
So whats the problem?
  • The surgery performed by Professor Jean-Michel
    Dubernard has raised important ethical questions
    considering the fact that he took the nose and
    mouth pieces from a brain-dead patient with the
    permission of the patients family of course.
    Medical ethicists, including the French ethics
    panel, raise questions that it is unnecessary to
    perform face transplants a high risk procedure
    only for the sake of cosmetic reasons.

7
Surgeons hit back
  • Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard stated that the
    womans face couldnt not have been repaired
    using regular surgery, and even if it was
    repaired, it would have rendered her unable to
    eat, drink and speak. Furthermore, the benefits
    of a face transplant clearly outweigh the risks
    involved. Without a face, a patient would lead a
    life of depression and isolation, and have a high
    tendency to commit suicide.

8
But risks are high
  • Patients, who have undergone face transplants,
    have to spend the rest of their lives on high
    doses of immunosuppressant drugs, that also
    increase the risk of cancer, while the risk of
    rejection lasts a lifetime. Patients take these
    drugs to ensure their bodies dont reject the
    newly transplanted facial tissue.

9
Did French government agree?
  • No it didn't. The French government ethics panel
    is against the procedure of face transplants.
    They say this womans case was classified as an
    emergency procedure, and face transplants, and
    informed consents are inappropriate during
    emergency procedures. Dr. Laurent Lantieri from
    the French ethics panel further questioned the
    preparedness of the patient for such a costly and
    demanding procedure, and the burden of depending
    upon complex drugs for the rest of her life in
    order to make this operation a success.

10
The Question of Self-Image
  • Some ethicists questioned whether the woman was
    prepared to live with someone elses face on, and
    how would it reflect on her self-image. Will she
    look like the donor? Will she look like her
    original self? Or will she look like a hybrid?
    The truth is, no one knew what the patient will
    feel like, or how will she look like. The BBC,
    however, reported that the patient will look like
    a hybrid because the shape of the face depends
    upon the underlying bone structure.

11
The question of personality
  • Humans recognize each other by their faces, and
    exchange emotions by facial expressions. If we
    change the face of a person, does the person
    become someone else? According to researchers,
    patients who have undergone hemispheroctomines
    (removal of half the brain) still retain their
    pre-surgery personalities. This means that ones
    personality has little or nothing to do with ones
    body organs. A person with a new face will still
    be the old self with a new body organ.

12
Where does the US stand?
  • Face transplants will hopefully be offered by US
    surgeons and psychologists at two medical
    centers Cleveland Clinic and the University of
    Louisville. Dr. Maria Siemionow from the
    Cleveland Clinic stressed that surgeons shouldnt
    be discouraged or stopped by doing new surgeries.
    "I hope nobody will be frivolous or do things
    just for fame. We are almost over-cautious," she
    said at the time. This high-risk procedure does
    require doctors to ensure that patients have
    given valid consent.

13
What does the future hold?
  • A relatively new area of medicine called Tissue
    Engineering will enable people to design their
    own faces, replace their existing faces with the
    new one, all done quickly and affordably. It
    means that if you dont like your baggy eyes or
    those wrinkles on your forehead, you could visit
    your local beauty salon and get a new face in ten
    minutes right before the Friday night party. The
    question is is this morally ok?

14
No, it is not morally OK
  • I feel that face transplants should only be used
    on patients who have injured or mangled their
    faces, and not on patients who want to get rid of
    their wrinkles or bags under their eyes. I feel
    that having a face transplant solely for the
    purpose of making one look attractive in middle
    age is very different from having a face
    transplant for protecting one from a life of
    depression, loneliness and low self-esteem.

15
Bibliography Links
  • Links
  • http//health.discovery.com/centers/plasticsurgery
    /facetransplant/slideshow/slide.html
  • http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
    le/2005/12/02/AR2005120201787.html
  • http//www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/01/health/m
    ain1091293.shtml
  • http//www.iht.com/articles/2004/06/16/edsokol_ed3
    _.php
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