Face Transplantation and Identity: Hidden Identities, Exceptions, and Exclusions

Face transplantation has been undertaken for over ten years as a surgical means to restore eating, swallowing, speech, and facial esthetics. Nevertheless, debates continue given numerous risks and lifelong immunosuppression. For many, face transplantation is still an experimental procedure, with unfinished philosophical and ethical explanations. This article aims to ascertain how identity features in the justification of facial allograft transplantation, and to critically investigate four neglected interpretations of identity. Firstly, the minimization of identity in transplantation of the vascular composite allograft. Second, the manipulation and management of identity in immunosuppression. Thirdly, how identity is de-centered in the exception of face transplantation for the blind. Finally, how fading face recognition abilities cause identity to be compromised in psychological exclusions. All these accounts reveal how the public “face” of face transplantation and its discourse favor individual esthetic identity over against more social dimensions that are often overlooked.