First Successful Full Face Transplant

A team of surgeons in Spain are claiming that they have managed to carry out the World's first successful full face transplant.

They have managed to replace skin tissue, new cheekbones, facial muscles, teeth, palate, skin, nose, lips and jaw in a marathon operation lasting over 24 hours.

Although not an organ, the bone and muscle were donated from another person, which means the next time this person looks in the mirror a different face will look back at them.

Before the surgery, the man, a farmer in his thirties, had been unable to swallow, speak or breathe properly after accidentially shooting himself in the face in 2005. Now he will have a fully reconstructed face.

More on the story here

Given it is now possible, could you donate your face to someone after your death and if you were in this situation, could you go through such an operation, knowing you would never look on you again?

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Originally posted by CatInASuit

Given it is now possible, could you donate your face to someone after your death?

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Certainly. I won't be using it will I?

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Originally posted by CatInASuit

If you were in this situation, could you go through such an operation, knowing you would never look on you again?

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Well, the young man in the story's face had been devastated - he was never going to look like his original self again in any case. Under such circumstances I would much rather have a face than not.

With regards to the first part of your question, yes, as it would no longer be of any use to me, but concerning the latter, I'd find it very difficult to endure such a nightmare scenario without wanting to take the easy way out and end my existence.

I find the idea of being either a face recipient or a face donor equally unsettling, but I can't think of any rational reason for it. So put me down for "sure, if it was needed."

That's an impressive bout of medical whiz bang no doubt, but I'll bet that the dude still looks more like Rocky Dennis than Brad Pitt. There's just so much going on in a face and that tissue is just so succeptable to scarring that while I'm pleased that the guy may be a bit more functional he's not going to be running out to fill out a Match.com profile.

Really I'd rather be dead, but were I to be and they wanted to scalp my mug then go for it. I figure that I'm all for any organ or tissue dontations since if it made it all the way along my ride and it's still even somewhat useful then it's most likely the best one ever made.

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Originally posted by Cluricaun

...while I'm pleased that the guy may be a bit more functional he's not going to be running out to fill out a Match.com profile.

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Clearly you haven't been on Match.com in a while. :smug:

Not me, I'm strictly a Craigslist kind of dude.

Um, I don't see where it's a cadaver donating.... I certainly hope it is.


I can't really imagine needing this or giving it. Does it include your eyes? I am weird about my eyes. I am happy to donate everything, but not anything to do with my eyes. I know it's not rational, but there it is.



What about teeth, tongue, blinking, eye-lashes etc? Was all that transplanted? How do they ensure that the lashes grow? And if they have ironed that out, could they then start doing scalp transplants for adult pattern baldness I can smell the money!

It would be very easy to donate ... what do I care what happens to my body after I die? (For those whose stomachs aren't too weak, I recommend a GREAT book about bodies called "Stiff", by Mary Roach, on the subject of corpses; I know it sounds awful but she is a wonderful writer and the book is excellent).

While it would be very hard to look at "someone else's" face in the mirror after being the recipient of a transplant, obviously the alternative is worse. (And I could always hope that the donor had fewer wrinkles than I have.)

I'm certain it would be a cadaver donation...it wouldn't be ethical to do otherwise. The tongue is a separate muscle and not part of the face, I'd be interested to hear what they did about that, since one of his major problems was dysphagia, but it doesn't give any details about why he was dysphagic, i.e., was it a tongue problem or something else. I'm betting facial hair is not a guaranteed part of the package, personally.

On the one hand, I doubt i'd particularly want to live like that, but on the other, I've seen people who do live with things that are pretty crippling, inconvenient, and which draw stares. So I'm reserved about saying I'd rather just die in X circumstance - clearly the will to live is strong, and until I've been in such a situation (hopefully never), I avoid making judgments on what kind of existence is worth living.

Someone has to.



They seem to gloss over some of the pricklier technical details of how it's done, but damned if they don't make it look easy.