Doctors in Kentucky have begun preparing a document to be submitted to an ethics panel at the University of Louisville School of Medicine seeking permission to perform a face transplant, the lead researcher in the endeavor told CNN.

"We are in the process of doing that," Dr. John Barker, director of plastic surgery research at the University of Louisville, said Tuesday. "We have a team of about 16 or 17 people."

The radical procedure, intended for patients with severe disfigurement, has not been attempted before, though doctors in the past have successfully reattached faces to patients after accidents.

The operation could offer new hope for those who suffer severe burns, cancer or gunshot wounds. The surgery will attach facial tissue and blood vessels from a cadaver to a new patient.

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Having worked in the US Army burn center at Brook Army Medical Center, I can see how this could be so incredibly helpful for people. Burns are so horrible to deal with. It is odd to think that you could have another persons face grafted to your skull though...I wonder if Tom Cruise would be willing to trade?

i remember i saw on guiness a couple years ago the story of how a man had his entire face blown off, lived that way for YEARS and years, and then doctors reconstructed him a new face. it was really amazing.

this is a cross between that and face-off i think, lol.

It is interesing...I wonder how traumatic it would be for someone to look in the mirror and see someone else's face, tho?

Depends whose face, I suppose.

You wouldn't really be seeing anyone else's face...it's not like the shape of it would suddenly change, just because the tissue came from someone else.

I must admit though, if there's anything I'd be weirded about recieving as a donation from a corpse, it would be the face organs, that's okay...but walking around with a dead person's face?

thats amazing!

that completely blows my mind!

wow...

This thread reminds me of the movie where Ally Sheedy (I think) gets a brain transplant, so she is completely different person. Has anyone ever seen that movie?