Surgeons in Italy are planning to carry out the world's first penis transplants.
Unlike previous surgeries in which severed penises have been reattached to a man's body, patients undergoing the new approach would receive somebody else's penis.
Reuters news service and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on November 4 that plastic surgeon Nicolo Scuderi of Umberto I Hospital in Rome has asked the government for permission to carry out the transplants. Scuderi said that such surgery would not be as technically complicated as re-attaching a man's own penis. However, although a transplanted penis would maintain vascularity and sensitivity, Scuderi and his colleagues were unsure whether erections would be possible.
Three patients are reportedly in line for a penis transplant: two women who want to be men and one man who regrets a sex change operation and wants a penis again.
Reuters and the BBC both quoted Scuderi as saying there are two sources for donor penises. One is clinically dead patients who are on life support. Also, surgeons could pair men and women who want sex change operations, and the man could donate his penis to the woman.
The prospect of transplanting penises has led to ethical questions because the penis is not a vital organ and the immunologic aspects of the procedure could be risky. Similar concerns were raised in September when surgeons in France transplanted an arm and hand. However, Scuderi said he would not perform penis transplants for aesthetic or cosmetic reasons, Reuters and the BBC said.
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