Exploring Psychosocial Issues & Ethical Dilemmas in Face Transplants

This report delves into the psychosocial issues and ethical dilemmas surrounding facial transplants, targeting an audience including individuals with and without facial differences, donor families, society, recipients, and healthcare providers. It highlights the positive outcomes of facial transplants, while also addressing concerns such as immune system rejection and the importance of patient personality traits in acceptance. The report explores specific dilemmas and psychosocial issues faced by potential recipients (rejection, depression, anxiety), potential donors (family dilemmas regarding organ donation), families of recipients and donors (relationship challenges, stress, anxiety), healthcare professionals (conflicts with professional duty), and society in general (over expectations, misuse of the procedure). The report references studies exploring psychological outcomes, functional recovery, and the impact on identity. It concludes by emphasizing the need for understanding the long-term psychological impacts and addressing ethical considerations in facial transplantation.

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Science communication
SssName
Professor
Unit
Date

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Journal paper title; psychosocial issues and ethical dilemmas surrounding facial
surgical development.
The article on the findings of Facial transplants, psychosocial issues, and ethical dilemmas
surrounding this surgical development and news reporting will be published in the American
newspaper THE SUN. The target audience to this article is the different individuals who have
a visible facial difference, those with no facial difference, the families of donors, society in
general, and recipients and the healthcare providers. The target audience has been selected
since psychosocial issues surrounding it, and ethical dilemmas issues b rough t about by
facial transplant. After the introduction of the facial transplant, 44+ operations have been
performed with the majority bearing positive pout comes. However, in 200, a French surgeon
carried a facial transplant to a man whose immune system began to reject the donors' faces
eight years after the operation. According to the recent press release, there was reported an
increase in social integration for patients who underwent facial transplanting. Also, these
patients were much satisfied with the aesthetic appearance of their facial transplants. The
previous studies reported the functional outcomes to process a lot of hopes, so objects like
sensory recovery and motor recovery (Kahan, 2015 p.88).
Patient personality traits contribute significantly to personal acceptance, such that those with
strong personalities often accept themselves faster as compare to the rest. Ethical matters
remain with an understanding of long-term psychological impacts being minimal (Rifkin et
al., 2018). Recent research in cognitive neuroscience understudying of the neural correlates
with personal-recognition may offer valuable insights in the coming days.
According to recent studies it has been found that there are specific dilemmas and
psychosocial issues surrounding people who have a visible facial difference. People with a
potential facial difference are those who are termed as potential recipients. The above group

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
of individuals is faced with many psychosocial issues. They include rejection by the
community as well as the family members. According to the research, when disfiguration
occurs during transplant, there is likely hood of the development of psychological distress.
Some of the patients with minor differences cope with this challenge, while others fail to deal
with the problem (Kahan, 2017. p.98). Potential recipients may also develop psychosocial
issues during the waiting period of a potential donor. Besides, this group is exposed to a lack
of confidence, depression, and social anxiety surrounding the facial transplant practice. The
group of individuals is also faced with specific psychosocial issues, and this mostly occurs
after they are deemed unsuitable for the transplant process.
Facial transplant on people who do have visible differences, commonly known as potential
donors, is also surrounded by particular dilemmas and psychosocial issues. The family
members of this group are often faced with a dilemma, whether it's ethical to donate the body
organs of their loved ones. Psychosocial issues may also occur when the family if the loved
ones want to view the body of their loved ones .It occurs in the instance where facial
transplant has been done on the donor to a recipient (Nizzi et al .,2017 p.120)
Families of the recipient and the donors were found to be facing some ethical dilemmas and
the appropriateness of the transplant process. In most cases, there develop relationship
challenges with the family members of the recipient after the transplanting exercise. In these
families, there were some specific psychosocial issues where most of the members had signs
of stress and anxiety. Psychological distress was observable, where the patient transplanted
face takes time to integrate with the patient body (Riesch, 2015 p.101). During this period,
communication and expression challenges were reducing gradually in the longer term. The
family of the deceased psychosocial issues in the event of face donation perceiving that their

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
loved one continued to live even after his/ her death. The gift creates ethical dilemmas by
disrupting some of the rituals and the burial process, and this also encourages media
intrusion.
Health care professionals are also faced with certain ethical dilemmas while performing the
face transplant, and the whole process may conflict the professional duty if a health worker
on the grounds of whether the process is relevant and ethical. The other dilemma facing the
surgeons is whether the transplant process will be successful. Under failed situations where
the recipient's face fails to integrate, the surgeons will be faced with and psychosocial issues.
Society, in general, will have a different view on the purpose of carrying out the facial
transplant exercise. Society will, at a given instance, have over expectations of the procedure,
which at a given point will be deemed suitable for only a small number (Bauer et al., 2013
p.87). Besides, this process will affect the social attitude toward the appearance of an
individual, with many abusing the procedure using it for other purposes other than the
original purpose.

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
References
Bauer et al. (2013) Global Science Journalism Report: Working Conditions & Practices,
Professional Ethos and Future Expectations. Sci.Dev.Net ISBN 978-1-909528-02-4
Kahan, D.M., 2015. Climate‐science communication and the measurement
problem. Political Psychology, 36, pp.1-43.
Riesch, H., 2015. Why did the proton cross the road? Humour and science
communication. Public Understanding of Science, 24(7), pp.768-775.
Kahan, D.M., (2017). ‘Ordinary science intelligence’: A science-comprehension measure
for study of risk and science communication, with notes on evolution and climate
change. Journal of Risk Research, 20(8), pp.995-1016.
Nizzi, M.C., Tasigiorgos, S., Turk, M., Moroni, C., Bueno, E., Pomahac, B. (2017)
Psychological Outcomes in Face Transplant Recipients: A Literature Review. Plastic
Surgery.
Rifkin, W.J., Kantar, R.S., Ali-Khan, S., Plana, N.M., Diaz-Siso, R., Tsakiris, M, Rodriguez,
and E.D. (2018) Facial Disfigurement and Identify: A Systematic Review of the Literature
and Implications for Facial Transplantation. AMA Journal of Ethics