What is the value of a human face? It is a vexing question with no simple answer. The question, however, is no longer fanciful given the trajectory of biomedical science that simultaneously captures our imagination and challenges our essence. Essential to each of us and to the whole of humanity, the face is primal in its individuated image and identity. It is intrinsically connected with us in a way that defied question—until now, given the highly anticipated next step in transplant science and technology, facial transplantation. This Article examines the value of the face in this context, along with a range of related issues.

The human face has rich significance. It is intrinsic and instrumental to the ontology of a person. A portal for emotions and expressions, the face reveals an inner-self essential to identity and is inscribed with an inherent dignity of human life.

The governance of reproductive science is fraught with controversy in nearly every jurisdiction across the globe. Worldwide, legislators and policy makers have struggled to craft meaningful and ethical parameters for the regulation of this new and evolving area of biotechnology. In most countries, it is agreed that some form of regulatory oversight over reproductive technologies is necessary. There is far less consensus, however, as to the type of regulatory structure that should be established. Recent debates over reproductive science have focused on two of the most controversial practices in this area: embryonic stem cell research and cloning technology. Specifically, interested parties have struggled over whether these practices are so egregious that they should be altogether prohibited, or whether they ought to be permitted, but subject to particular legislative limits and regulatory oversight.

The difficulties that most countries have experienced in devising legislation pertaining to embryonic stem cell and cloning research emanate from the moral ambiguity that characterizes this area of science.

On January 7, 2003, Sydney Cowan, a healthy six-year-old girl, underwent skin harvesting, specifically to be used for her badly burned identical twin sister, Jennifer. A day earlier, the Probate Court of Jefferson County, Alabama, after considering whether a healthy minor twin sibling could serve as a skin donor for her severely burned sister, authorized parental consent to the surgery. More accurately, the court addressed whether Sydney could undergo surgical procedures that provided her with no physical benefit, but, rather, resulted in harmful effects, such as acute postoperative pain, permanent residua, and potential long-term emotional and psychological dysfunction.

Although the transplants were extraordinarily successful, and the newspaper article depicted Sydney's participation in heroic terms, the harvesting of Sydney's skin was ethically problematic. Specifically, I assert that the use of an incompetent minor as a skin transplant donor, even if an identical twin, is not justified unless the transplant will save the recipient's life.

In 1971, New York Times journalist James Reston watched as brain surgery was preformed in the former Red Cross Hospital in Shanghai with acupuncture as the only anesthesia. “[Patients] were anesthetized merely by the insertion of very thin three-inch stainless steel needles into the body … and they were not only perfectly conscious while their skulls were laid open before us but remarkably alert within half an hour after the operation.” One patient, a fifty-four-year-old man named Chuan Leao, had been suffering from epilepsy as a result of a large tumor in the frontal lobe of his brain. “He seemed sensibly puzzled by being introduced to a couple of American strangers during his ordeal but was courteous and patient, and we listened to his comments while the tumor was removed and even watched him eat oranges slices and ask for more while the operation was going on.”