FRANKEN-PENIS:
THE CADAVER PENIS TRANSPLANT RUMOR THAT JUST WON'T STAY DEAD.
By Nick
Updated July 19, 2003
I recently heard from another unsuspecting victim of this rumor and here's what I responded with:
Below is a section of my upcoming book where I discuss this
very thing. Here are just 2 arguments I present.
Please note, my feelings about this are very strong and a lot of my attitude is
based on encounters with other people, not you and your very honest
question.
Onward:
I feel it is a pipe dream. If it does happen, there will be a massive outcry
from people saying that it is wrong and I cannot say I don't agree.
For many reasons I feel it is wrong and because of expressing these reasons in
an old email FTM support group I used to moderate, I went from having many
friends to down to maybe 2 or 3 in 5 seconds. Here is a small list of what I
feel is wrong about removing the penis and testes from a dead man and surgically
attaching them to a living host. The issue of whether the host is a male or
female does not matter.
1. A penis transplant is wrong because it's a part of man he may not wish
to give up.
It's a dead man's penis and I don't imagine many men will consent to having
something he feels makes him a man, removed and placed on someone else let alone
a female.
People just cannot seem to get it through their heads that most people don't
understand transsexuals let alone gay people. The rush of men who will line up
saying "Take my penis and attach it to a transsexual, I don't care"
will be next to none. Some have spouted that they can just take the penis if the
man signed a donor card; maybe so, maybe not. The family may have a thing or two
to say about it.
2. Placing the body under undo stress increasing the risk of infection
and rejection just to obtain a dead man's penis is not a healthy way to look at
things.
If anyone reading this is foolish and naive enough to think that the appendage
will stay put with no problems, they need to get real.
Fact: Chronic Rejection remains an unsolved problem. Most transplants are
rejected within 5 to 10 years if not within weeks or months after the surgery.
Why? Because the body part did not come from the recipient therefore the
recipients body will try to reject it and may well succeed no matter what
preventive measures are taken.
Fact: The moment a foreign body part is transplanted to
a patient, the immune system sends out an arsenal of T cells. These T cells
attach themselves to the cells of the transplanted organ or body part and begin
to assault it killing the cells of the organ or part. There are drugs that are
used to stop this process but there is no guarantee they will be effective.
To stop rejection the person will need to take multitude of very strong anti-rejection meds commonly known in the medical field as Immunosuppressant Drugs.
Immunosuppressant drugs are used to trick the body into
thinking the new part is it's own. This is called, "Inducing
Tolerance".
Fact: Immunosuppressant drugs severely compromise the immune system. Not
can but DO. They have devastating side effects and risks such as; High Blood
Pressure, Diabetes, Certain Cancers, Brittle Bones, and Heart
Disease. These drugs must be taken when a foreign body part or organ is
introduced into another host: for life or as long as the body part or organ
survives or the person survives.
In 1984, a patient called Baby Faye was given a baboons heart.
The transplant was a success but the drugs weakened her immune system so badly,
she died several days later. Again, not from receiving the baboons heart but
from what the drugs did to her so she would not reject the heart.
A buddy of mine has to use these drugs for a cornea transplant, that little lens
on the eye, though very important lens, that covers the front of the iris!
Rarely do people think about the drugs that they will have to take, for life or for as long as the member survives and rarely do they think just how much those drugs cost.
Many simply do not think about the fact that no insurance
company is going to pay for the transplant (dream on) and as a result of that,
the insurance company isn't going to step up and say, sure, we'll pay for these
very expensive meds to help you keep something we would not pay for!
Organ transplantation is already causing massive expectations that surgeons
simply cannot meet. Many patients die while on waiting lists for organs that
sustain life. In 2001, every day eleven people died while waiting for an organ.
Most surgeons and hospitals consider transplantation only if it is needed to
save a persons life or enhance their quality of life.
Quality of life, such as a penis transplant, is simply not a high priority and probably won't be classified as enhancing the quality of life since the chances of the transplant functioning properly is remote if not impossible. Men live without their penises everyday, who have lost it to war, accident or disease, and have a relatively satisfying quality of life but I have NEVER heard or read of a biological male born with the right parts then losing them utter one sentence in any book, TV show or news program about taking the penis from a dead man and surgically transplanting it onto himself. A man in Italy lost his penis to cancer and did he ask for a dead mans penis? Hell no! The surgeons amputated his middle finger, removed the bines, did some creative plastic surgery and transplanted it where his penis was and he's a happy guy.
Most FTM's think the idea is just too creepy to entertain and others have pondered that they would never know where that man penis had been while he was alive.
And No, if an FTM did have this surgery, he wouldn't be able to father children. The dynamics to making sperm and ejaculating is much more complex than sewing on a penis and testes.
The suggestion of an MTF donating their penis and testes to an
FTM is ridiculous because the penis is removed and the sensate outer skin of the
penis inverted to make the lining of the vagina. I have been told, though this
may not be fact, that the skin of the scrotum can be used to fashion the labia.
Paying for it financially. Do you who believe this have any concept of
how much this surgery will cost? How many of you out there are trying to figure
out how to pay for a phalloplasty or Metaoidioplasty???? Do those who believe
this really think this is going to be affordable? What bank will loan what may
go well into a million dollars when all is said and done?
Paying for it professionally. How many hospitals will line up saying they will do this when the public outcry and the threat of losing business will loom over their heads?
Surgeons who have experimented with transplanting hands have faced scrutiny and often disdain from their own colleagues and many simply do not wish to put their careers or reputations on the line and that is just with hand transplants!
Paying for it Personally. And what about the FTM who did pursue this and possibly was the first to have it done? If he could afford a cash only surgery well over 1 million dollars and the Immunosuppressant drugs that could run 30 grand per month, the rejection from society would be devastating because it wouldn't be a hush-hush surgery; his story would be on every news station and on every front page newspaper from New York to little town Iowa. The chances of that guy being accepted once everyone in the free world knew his story and his face, would be ZERO. I'd lay odds at 100 to 1 that he'd commit suicide within a year.
In France a man who lost both arms to a fireworks accident, was a double lower arm and hand recipient. The surgery was kept very quiet, it was not publicized because of this kind of scrutiny. Imagine what kind of uproar a penis transplant would cause!
There are perfectly acceptable surgeries out there that have suited the needs of many transmen and eventually the surgeries will just get better.
In fact, in 2003, tissue engineering successfully created a
penis. Read HERE: Tissue Engineers Grow Penis With Feeling
In closing, I understand the need to feel complete, I have no qualms with
that. But this 'out there' concept/rumor of receiving a dead mans penis
filtering through the FTM ranks then being perpetuated by a retired MTF
transsexual doctor who told people at an FTM gathering in 1999 is the perfect
day dream and on her part, good old fashioned poor judgment and frankly, a cruel
joke because many believed her and so the rumor started.