A NEW FACE: A BOLD SURGEON, AN UNTRIED SURGERY
by Michael Mason
quote:
A team led by Dr. Siemionow is planning to undertake what may be the most shocking medical procedure to occur in decades: a face transplant.... As Dr. Siemionow envisions it, the series of operations will require rotating teams of specialists who may be deployed in more than one operating theater. The face to be transplanted will be removed, or "degloved," from a cadaver; it will most likely include the epidermis, along with the underlying fat, nerves and blood vessels, but no musculature. Surgeons also will remove the patient's own damaged facial tissue, then reattach the clamped blood vessels and nerves to the transplanted face. The procedures will take 15 hours, perhaps longer.
Article in 07/26/05 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/health/26face.html?th&emc=th
But oh, the science fiction possibilities here. There was the 1999 movie "Face Off" with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage that used this storyline.
However, I find the whole concept creepy in real life. It's hard to imagine waking up and looking like someone else. For the rest of your life.
They probably wouldn't look like the cadaver, though, given that the face is being placed on a different bone structure and musculature. I suspect that someone with high cheekbones will look different with the same face of someone without.
[This message has been edited by Kolona (edited July 26, 2005).]
I think in order to truly make someone look like someone else, you have to change the underlying bone structure.
You've all seen photos, haven't you, of when they reconstruct a face from a skull in order to try to find someone who might recognize the dead person? The bone structure is what makes the difference.
And because of that, I wonder how much good a face transplant will do someone who needs reconstruction of the jaw or other parts of the face. Putting someone else's skin on top of a deformed or damaged skull is not going to do much good.
But can you IMAGINE the horror if you were a relative of the deceased running into the transplant patient on the street, wearing your dead mother or sister's face??? Even with different bone structure, I wonder if the face would be recognizable??
I also wonder about those articles that claim there is cellular memory, that people who have had organ transplants begin to have memories and flashes of "knowing" that could only have come from the organ donor.
Like I said, there is a good sci-fi tale here somewhere ... heh.
Really, the term "degloved" says it all. We are talking about a peice of uncured leather with holes for the eyes, nose and mouth. We are not talking about a face.
Still, I think that getting tissue from cadavers is gross enough without having it on your face.
I mean...ew!
I can't actually write this story; I've tried. I think it sounds cool, but it's not mine to tell. If anyone wants it, it's up for grabs.
[This message has been edited by TheoPhileo (edited July 28, 2005).]
"Scientists... have developed a method for processing blood and turning it into food products such as milk, yogurt, chocolate, and coffee,... "
quote:
The idea reminds me of how Hannibal Lecter escaped from that cage they had him in in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
Survivor:
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I'm feeling really confused right now. I think I'll take a nap and think about this some more. There must be something I'm missing. Hehehehe.
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They have already released test foods that do not differ in taste from traditional foods they imitate
You know, they always say that about substitutes, but I have never found it to be true. But then, I'm the one who can taste the difference between different brands of milk...
If they're gonna make something out of blood, why do they have to make a substitute for something else? Why can't they just make a new, unique product? I still wouldn't eat it, but at least I wouldn't be disgusted by the thought of eating milk or yogurt made from blood. Yyrch.
--Mel
Although I'm aware of the Biblical injunction against eating blood, I'm not inclined to see an intrinsic difference between eating blood and any other part of an animal.
But having something grafted onto my face is different. At least if it were just a question of smearing a dead guy's blood all over my face, I could wash it off.
The rolleyes was just because we'd moved to the logical point of talking about Hannibal Lecter. You have to roll your eyes once that happens in a conversation between theoretically non-insane adults.
Bleh, I hate factory farming.
--Mel
Ew.
There should be a law against messing with the basic ingredients of chocolate. Didn't they learn ANYTHING from the fiasco of using carob?
Has anybody tried the Filipino dish Dinaguan? It's a blood goo that they mix with rice. My wife and kids like it, but to my mid-western eyes, it looks extremely nasty. In twelve plus years of marriage, I've never even come close to tasting it.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/12/02/france.face/index.html
For those of us who write science fiction the trick is to find the next level of horror...how about a partial brain transplant? Now that would make for some good horror. I might have to write a short story with that tool...not the frontal lobe, that would be too easy and predictable...hmmmm
BTW Elan: that link asks you to register before you get access to the article.
This was probably already mentioned.
There was a recent documentary about this procedure and the surgeons practiced on cadavers for years before thinking themselves able to try it on a living person.
As part of the process, they took 'before' and 'after' photos to hundreds of plastic and reconstructive surgeons. For one test these photos were 'mixed in' with images of un-transplanted faces and none could pick the transplanted faces nor, when revealed, could easily identify the 'new' face as being the same face as the 'old' face.
A psychologists, (for those with faith in pschlochologists) went on to say how about 80% of communication is non-verbal, as in gestures, facial expressions etc. These all aid us in recognising and identifying others. As the recipient of the transplanted face retains all their nonverbal cues mannerisms, expressions etc, the risk of identification is reduced. This coupled with the fact that the 'new' face looks like a cross between the two 'old' faces reduces the chances of identification to being basically impossible.
They said the worst reaction a loved one might have is feeling that there was something about that person that reminded them of their dead loved one.
By 'cross between the two 'old faces' I guess they mean sort of like the midway point between two people in that 'morphing' video-clip Michael Jackson put out.
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited December 04, 2005).]
You get things moving and then you get to the layer of fat that started it all, and the feelings of sadness or anger or whatever made you fat in the first place start bogging you down. Maybe. I don't know. It's just a thought. I do think we sublimate a lot of unpleasant emotions into various kinds of muscle strain and psychosomtice dis-eases. I don't think it could be called organic memory, because the body isn't in that sense very complex. But maybe the organic memory in the brain is more vertical in nature whereas tissue memory is lateral. It's not much for specifics but gives the breadth of the experience.
I think the movie "Return to me" only worked because it had Fox Mulder in it, and we as an audience were used to him taking nonsense deadly serious. It wasn't one of my favorite films, I wouldn't say it was even a good film. But it carried a very weak premise further than most films could. Unlike, say, that one with Christian Slater whose name I can't recall.
If tissue memory were a big problem, I think we'd hear more about it from liver transplants. I mean, most people don't think much of the liver, but it's where the umbilical cord attaches before we are born. It's a pretty significant organ. Though most people who have transplanted livers have to be on scads of drugs.
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited December 06, 2005).]
I am 10 days from graduation at a small state uni in Cedar City, UT and needless to say the LDS influence is considerable. Its like baptists in the rural south.
It is a really old joke here