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The New York Times reports that Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland has decided to perform up to 60 penis transplants on "men injured in combat."
The operation is experimental, and only two previous attempts have been reported: an unsuccessful one in China, and a successful one in South Africa. Because the procedure is so rare, the medical team will be seeking explicit consent from the families of organ donors, who may not have contemplated the use of their penises in this manner. One physician noted that, should the transplantation program meet with success, there will be interest in the surgery by transgender people.
A Department of Defense database shows that "from 2001 to 2013, 1,367 men in military service suffered wounds to the genitals in Iraq or Afghanistan."
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(Score: 3, Touché) by kaganar on Thursday December 17 2015, @03:06PM
Would you rather lose your legs, or have surgery performed and an immunosuppressant administered? In today's society you certainly don't need your legs. Sure, they're helpful, but functionally they're really not needed. Yes, you do lose certain functionality, there is a social stigma, you will not enjoy activities you used to enjoy, activities which you in fact have a natural propensity to enjoy, and it's likely you'll feel like the freak in the room.
Seems like a pretty easy-to-understand quality-of-life issue. It may be sad that there's a lot of social problems associated with losing your legs, but it's far easier to change yourself than society, and flesh-and-blood is better understood than emotions-and-neurons.