Face transplants have become yet another concept to be debated upon by bioethicists and surgeons. This surfaced as French doctors have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world's first partial face transplant, giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman disfigured in an attack by a dog. Yet, ethical concerns have been sparked, leaving us bewildered.

Bioethicists have spurred many questions such as, should the pool of possible donors only include those who have signed a donor card or who sign a document including their face among those organs and tissues they are willing to give? Or should their families be able to make the decision without a donor card since they are the ones who will have to live with whatever happens when the surgery is completed and someone else receives their loved one’s face? (Arthur Caplan-Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.)

Also, many doctors are asking whether reconstructive surgery should have been contemplated before embarking on a partial face implant surgery.

What do you think? Join the discussion and give your opinion, Having a Different Face?

For more details, please read the report from Reuters and the links below discussing the ethical implications.

Lyon, France—French doctors have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world's first partial face transplant, giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman disfigured in an attack by a dog.

Surgeons from two hospitals carried out the operation on a 38-year-old woman in the northern city of Amiens.

“The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal,” the hospitals said in a statement.

“The transplant was taken from a multi-organ donor ... with the agreement of the family.”

The woman had been left without a nose and lips after the dog attacked her last May. She had been unable to talk or chew.

The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a specialist from a hospital in the southeastern city of Lyon, and Bernard Devauchelle from Amiens.

Stephen Wigmore, chair of the British Transplantation Society's ethics committee, said teams in France, the United States and Britain had been developing techniques to make face transplants a reality.

“This is the first facial transplant of the modern era,” said Iain Hutchins, a facial surgeon and chief executive of Saving Faces - The Facial Surgery Research Foundation, a medical research charity.

Hutchins said that although all medical advances should be celebrated, the facial transplant operation had thrown up many moral and ethical issues.

“This was a ‘quality of life’ operation rather than a life-saving operation and has many implications for the recipient and donor's families,” he added.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Reaney in London)

More News on the Face Transplant:

• Q&A: First Face Transplant

• Woman Has First Face Transplant

• Face Op Patient 'Said Thank You' 

• Partial Face Transplant Raises Ethical Concerns

• French Doctors Defend Ethics of First Face Transplant

• Face Transplant Ethics Debated

• Ethics of Face Surgery Questioned

• Possibility of Face Transplants Raises Moral, Ethical Questions

• Face Transplant Surgery

• Organ Transplantation—An Islamic Perspective

• Death That Justifies Switching Off Life Support

• Skin Grafting: Permissible?

• Donating an Organ after Death

• Who Takes a Patient’s Life?

• Euthanasia: Types and Rulings

• Islam’s View on Organ Transplants and Donations