February 13, the New Yorker, Transfiguration: How Dallas Wiens Found a New Face.
A bit of history from an article about a man who lost his entire face in a devastating electrical accident.
Sushruta’s treatises found their way to Renaissance Europe, and, in 1557, Gaspare Tagliacozzi, a professor in Bologna, described a form of rhinoplasty from Sicily that was much like Sushruta’s. He understood reconstructive surgery in psychological terms, explaining, “We restore, repair, and make whole those parts which nature has given but fortune has taken away, not so much that they delight the eye, but they buoy up the spirit and help the mind of the afflicted.” The Catholic Church disagreed; it judged that he had been tampering with the will of God and excommunicated him. --Raffi Khatchadourian
See my comments on the Philosophy Talk blog, re: race; abortion; and homosexuality. If you are interested, you'll have to go there. It is all connected---believe me---or not. The Catholic Church? It bothers me. Does it bother you? If not, why not?
Posted by: Paul D. Van Pelt | February 15, 2012 at 06:53 PM