GRATITUDE SAY THANK YOU, EXPREIENCE THE JOY OF ACKNOWLEDGING OTHERS.

THE first face transplant operation could take place by the end of the year after American surgeons applied for formal ethical approval to attempt the controversial procedure.

A team led by John Barker, of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, has submitted a 30-page document to the university's ethics committee setting out its case for the experimental operation.

If the application is approved, the team hopes to begin selecting potential donors and recipients within months, and could attempt a transplant by the end of the year.

Such an operation would ignite an ethical controversy among doctors and surgeons, many of whom believe the dangers of the procedure are so great that it would not yet be right to conduct it. The British Royal College of Surgeons concluded in a report last year that face transplants should not be attempted without much more research because of the disastrous effect that a failed operation would have on a patient.

Dr Barker said he believed the risks were outweighed by the potential benefits. "Caution by itself will not get us any closer," he told New Scientist magazine. "If Christopher Columbus were cautious, I'd probably be speaking with a British accent."

He said transplanting a face from a dead donor would be easier than reattaching a face lost in an accident - a procedure that has already been conducted three times with good cosmetic effects.

I CAN JUST SEE IT ALL NOW.........IT WILL TURN INTO A 3 RING CIRCUS OF WOMEN WHO JUST HATE THEIR LOOKS.......EXTREME MAKEOVER!! IS THEIR NO LIMIT TO JUST HOW FAR YOU WANT TO PUSH IT?