Since face transplant surgery is so problematic, why are you still actively preparing for it? Now that the first transplant has taken place in China, do you intend to further promote your plan?

As a kind of scientific exploration, everybody wants to be the first to do it. Such factors as underdevelopment in technology cannot stop us pushing forward to face transplants. However, we must abide by the principle that the advantages must outweigh the disadvantages. Given the problems I mentioned, the result of this operation may be harmful to patients but the exploratory spirit should be encouraged. Hence, if we keep the operation within a certain range, its advantages will be more than its disadvantages. That is, we should regard the operation as a scientific exploration but not as an experiment aiming to push the surgery into larger practice.

If there are suitable face sources, I will conduct such an operation. I believe that facial transplant surgery will be generalized to a larger range of cases after applicable laws are developed and completed. However, when we conduct such operations, we must first and foremost respect the patients' privacy and tell them the worst possible scenario because there will be many more problems after the face transplant than before the surgery, according to current surgical techniques.

Can you share some details of how surgeons prepare for a face transplant? Have you encountered any pre-surgery problems?

At present, the biggest problem I'm facing is a lack of face transplant sources. After I put the "face donation" announcement on my website, more than 10 people contacted to say they want to donate their faces after death. However, these persons are still alive so I don't have access to the sources right now.

It's a very complicated process to obtain face sources. Although the government has established an administrative regulation on organ transplants, it is hardly workable and does not include face transplants, presenting many obstacles to our work. For example, an old man in Beijing said he was ready to donate the face of his wife, who had been dead for a few days. However, because there is no clear law or regulation concerning facial transplants, as a hospital, our hospital had to abandon this opportunity. To the contrary, maybe some local medical institutions have more flexible methods to grasp such chances.

What is the current process for face transplant surgery?

Because of the lack of applicable laws and regulations, there is no uniform process for facial transplant surgery. According to the principle of "no penalty without a law," any hospital can conduct a face transplant without the authorization of an administrative department.

However, in practice, regarding the principle of self-discipline, hospitals will apply to their senior administrative departments of health. At our hospital, for example, we should go through three steps. We should first apply to the academic committee of the Plastic Surgery Hospital. After this application has passed, we should apply to the professional committee of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. At last, when that application has passed, we should apply to the Ministry of Health and wait until the proposal has been approved by its ethics and legal committees before performing the surgery.