CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Clinic is planning for the world's first face transplant and possible candidates will soon be interviewed.
Doctors hope it means new life for badly disfigured people and supporters say the necessary planning and practice is done. Critics say it's too risky, that a face could be rejected, leaving a person even more disfigured.
The consent form says the risks are so unknown that doctors don't think informed consent is possible. It tells potential patients their face will be removed and replaced with one from a cadaver.
Infections could mean a second transplant or skin grafts.
Drugs to prevent rejection would needed forever and would increase the risk of kidney damage and cancer.
Another form tells the donor's family the recipient will not look like the dead person. That's because bone and muscle, not skin, gives a face its shape.
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