Pediatric facial transplantation: Ethical considerations

Facial transplantation is becoming increasingly accepted as a method of reconstructing otherwise unreconstructable adult faces. As this modality is made more available, we must turn our attention to pediatric patients who may benefit from facial transplantation. In the current article, the authors present and briefly examine the most pressing ethical challenges posed by the possibility of performing facial transplantation on pediatric patients. Furthermore, they issue a call for a policy statement on pediatric facial transplantation. The present article may serve as a first step in that direction, highlighting ethical issues that would need to be considered in the creation of such a statement.