weblog #11 First Face Transplant Performed in the U.S.

According to First Face Transplant Performed in the U.S., Cleveland Clinic surgeons have performed the nation’s first near total face transplant.

In this case, the recipient of the facial transplant surgery was suffering from facial damage. If not for the surgery, no one could imagine what would happen on the woman. Many people may think that it sounds like a plastic surgery, but, in my opinion, the surgery was done not for good looking but for medical purpose. The series of the surgery had been done in China and France. Later on, similar surgeries were done in these two countries.

Nevertheless, there is something that might be troublesome. The rejection of the foreign tissue transplanted from another body. Recipients have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives, but it may be risky if the effectiveness decreased.

Medical technology is now improving fast conspicuously. As a result, people are able to live longer and longer. After human-to-human organ transplant, now scientists are doing research on animal-to-human organ transplant. Scientists implant human genes into animals’ cells and then gene manipulated animals would be born. These animals’ will carry organs that are genetically similar to humans’ organs. Afterward, scientists are hoping to transplant the organs to humankinds as soon as possible. However, there are some moral issues that are still under discussing.