On the Ethics of Facial Transplantation Research, Am J of Bioethics, 4(3)- 1–12, 2004

Medical ethicists have assumed a role in justifyingpublic voyeurism of human “curiosities.” This rolehas precedent in how scientists and natural philoso-phers once legitimized the marketing of museums of“human curiosities.” At the beginning of the twenti-eth century, physicians dissociated themselves fromentrepreneurial displays of persons with anomalies,and such commercial exhibits went into decline. To-day, news media, principally on television, promotenews features about persons that closely resemblethe nineteenth century exhibits of human curiosi-ties. Reporters solicit medical ethicists for sound-bites to affirm the newsworthiness and propriety ofpublic voyeurism of these medical stories. Ethicists’soundbites are usually ambiguous or self-evidentand rarely enable viewers to morally engage the is-sues. The precedent of early twentieth century physi-cians disengaging from such exploitive public showsis a useful example for medical ethics.