Bound Alberti, Fay orcid.org/0000-0003-2265-3822 and Hoyle, Victoria orcid.org/0000-0002-5149-806X (2021) Face transplants:An international history. Journal of the History of Medicine and the Allied Sciences. pp. 319-345. ISSN 1468-4373
Abstract
Face transplants have attracted global media and public attention since the 1990s. The first recipient, Isabelle Dinoire, found herself at the centre of a dramatic episode of surgical innovation after her transplant was announced in November 2005. Subsequently 47 transplants have been conducted worldwide (including two retransplants), up to August 2020, and these have been accompanied by extensive news coverage. Hundreds of papers on the medical, physical, psychological and ethical implications of the procedure have been published in the scientific literature, disproportionate to the incidence of the procedure. Face transplants have also featured in films, television and fiction, indicating an appetite for interrogating the social and interpersonal implications of facial difference. However, the history of facial transplantation has largely been unexplored. This article provides the first international history of the global development and implementation of facial transplantation. Using published medical literature, media coverage and oral history interviews with key participants as source material, it situates the experimental transplant in national, institutional and professional contexts. It argues that charting the history of face transplants, over a 30 year period from initial discussions in 1991 to the present, provides a valuable case study through which to consider surgical cultures and discourses of medical innovation in the twenty-first century.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (York) > History (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 08 Sep 2020 10:40 |
Last Modified: | 26 Dec 2024 00:13 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrab019 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/jhmas/jrab019 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:165245 |