New face
Courtesy of Bruce Sterling's blog at The Infinite Matrix, an article (from a month ago, so I don't know if things have changed in the mean time) about UK surgeons who are developing techniques for "full-face transplants for patients who are seriously disfigured." Sounds pretty cool to me; I would expect the biggest objections to be from law enforcement. But the article talks about there being serious ethical considerations to be decided on before the doctors proceed. Interesting. I can also see friends and relatives of the (presumably deceased) donor being upset by knowing there's someone out there who now looks a lot like the donor; but I would expect that different face shapes and different expressions would result in the recipient not looking exactly like the donor, just similar. I think I'd be fine with being such a donor, though I'm not sure; I'll have to think about it a little more. And if I were a friend or relative of the donor, as long as I didn't have to see the recipient regularly, I think I'd view this as much like any other organ transplant: pleased that the body part is doing someone some good.
But I may be wrong about how I'd react, and even if I'm right, I may be in a very small minority about this. A plastic surgeon involved in the project, Peter Butler, "has carried out a survey among 120 people—some of them nurses and doctors—asking if they would consider donating their faces in the event of death. . . . Not one said he would be willing to donate his facial features."