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The science fiction fantasy of wearing another person's face attracted the attention of journalists at NBC and ABC. ABC's John McKenzie covered the news of a face transplant at the Cleveland Clinic Tuesday. Now NBC's Robert Bazell and ABC's Dan Harris (embargoed link) follow up as surgeon Maria Siemionow described the 22-hour procedure that gave a deformed patient a new nose, cheeks, upper jaw, upper lip, palate, teeth and lower eyelids from the skull of a cadaver. Harris focused on the ethics of the procedure, since deformity is not life-threatening yet side effects of anti-rejection medication may be. Normally physicians do not risk a life unless that life is threatened. That worry was countered by a clinic doctor: "You need a face to face the world." NBC's Bazell looked to a wider use for this procedure. The clinic has already entered into talks with Brooke Army Medical Center about possible face transplants for severely burned war casualties. And to answer the question that occurs to everyone, ABC's McKenzie assured us that no, "patients receiving a face transplant do not end up looking like the donor."
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