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Doctors in the People’s Republic
of China transferred substantial portions of the face of a brain
dead man unto the face of this recipient.
The recipient was mauled by a bear, in China and most of
his face was terribly disfigured.
After the surgery, the man was given a mirror to have a
look at himself. While
being satisfied with the surgery, he said that he noticed that he
looked “different”! However,
what are the ethics of this second face transplant?
This case is very much different
from the French case that was done some time before. In the China case, the donor was not dead (even though he was
brain dead). What has
become of the donor and his face?
Who gave the go-ahead for that donor to remove most of his
face so that it can go on the head of another person?
Does the person who gave that approval have any right to
decide this for that brain dead person?
We have already seen how body
parts, both internal and external, are being removed from corpses
(and living persons, in the case of internal parts) and given to
living persons who are in desperate need of them.
In Great Britain, some years ago, the arms of a recently
deceased man were removed and surgically attached to another.
We routinely see heart, lung and liver transplants being
performed. Such is
the rapid advance of science and technology.
The case in China, however, raises
some very serious questions.
Seeing that the donor was not quite dead and surely now
without most of his face, will the day come when we will see more
of such “medical miracles”?
If a person has total or near total organ failure, will he
now be subject to be scrapped, even before he is dead?
While I have no problem with using body parts, both
internal and external, from the dead to help sustain the living, I
am not sure about doing so from the living.
The only possible exception that I
may have is in the case of some convicted prisoners – those that
have been convicted of heinous crimes can be used as donors. However, I am not too sure that ordinary people should be
“pulled apart” while still alive.
There is also another case that
offers an alternative. A
young girl was given a bladder that was grown unto a mold.
The bladder was grown from cells taken from another part of
her body. If internal
organs and external ones, including the skin can be grown from the
recipient’s own cells, then there would not be so much need for
the body of another person – whether dead or alive.
Science is advancing at such a rate that such occurrences
as this one with the girl and her bladder may soon become routine.
Surely, this option would raise less ethical concerns than
the Chinese case.
For the time being, it seems certain that we will
see more of these medical wonders.
The rapid advance of science and technology will make sure
of this. Mankind is
continually increasing his scientific and technological abilities.
While these abilities are certain, the ethics of some of
them will certainly be very debatable.
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