Upcycling: To reuse discarded objects or material in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.
Laying bare and bodiless on a surgery table a face waits. Absent eyes and tongue-less mouth are open and soft. Nearby in Operating Room Twenty, Katie Stubblefield prepares for her face transplant. Having lost her face in a tragic suicide attempt three years previous, Katie is now the youngest person so far to receive this experimental surgery at twenty one.
After reading about Katie’s story through a National Geographic article last week, I have since been almost obsessively occupied with the relationship between our spiritual sense of self and our physical being. Are transplants a kind of “human upcycling”? If so, what does this reveal about our “self-ness”? Can we upcycle a person, fix them, make them a product of higher value and quality? With cosmetic surgery increasing in popularity through social media influences and external pressures on individuals, what does it really mean to permanently change our bodies? Ultimately, this asks the question: is humanity tangible?
The surgery Katie received was undoubtedly an incredible feat for modern day science and medical care. Transplant surgery can offer life saving care, of which we are all aware, and I hold a deep sense of admiration and respect for the medical professionals carrying out these surgeries. According to NHS Organ Donations, 3117 people have received a life-saving transplant since April 2019, and the current transplant waiting list stands at a staggering 6254. As advances in medical technology continue to grow, these surgeries are increasing in success and development, enabling doctors to carry out ground breaking procedures, as seen in Katie’s case.
Putting this to one side, however, I wish to explore the ways in which this challenges our humanity, if it challenges it at all. I have always recognised myself as my face. It is my identifier, my communicator, my link between my self and my world. With my face being so integral with my sense of self, I began wondering what it would mean to change faces. Katie remains Katie despite wearing a new face. In fact, perhaps this face has now became Katies, changing over lives as it changed owners. So where, if not in her face or in her body, does Katie really exists? Philosopher Allan Watts explains in his lecture “Getting back to your self” that within Western culture, people associate their inner self with their head, as if it resides somewhere “between the ears and behind the eyes”. In Eastern culture, he goes on the explain, this sense of self is usually associated with the centre of the body, residing somewhere near the stomach or heart. This is not a new observation, with people often affiliating their physical organs with their spiritual sense of self. For example, a heart being the place of love. And so, if our hearts love and our faces carry our identity, what happens when we give these parts of ourselves to someone else? Katie did not change identity to that of her face donor, and her inner self still resides somewhere between her ears or somewhere in her stomach, depending which view you prefer to take. So, what does it mean that she now wears another woman’s face as her own?
On a more diluted level, we see this happening within the world of cosmetic surgery, or even within the beauty industry. We, as a society, are obsessed with upcycling ourselves. I have been upcycling myself for years. Staining my skin and slathering expensive face paint over my face every morning. Sometimes I straighten and chop my curls. I pluck the unity out of my eyebrows and slide razors over my shins. Making my body a product of higher quality, and ultimately, value. This is perhaps a fairly negative take, and I do hold many personal uncertainties about the beauty industry and the impact it has on people. For the sake of this piece, however, I shall save these thoughts for a later time. I am more occupied, for the time being, with how connected we really are to our outer being. Do these changes we make to ourselves, change us not only externally but internally as well?
Perhaps, as we embark on this new technologically advanced way of living, we must begin to question what exactly it means to be human. Stories, such as Katie’s, cannot simply be taken at face value. Of course, this is a tale of extra-ordinary medical progression and skill. But it is also a tale of our humanity. It breaks down the preconceived ideas we have held about identity for many years. Perhaps, our ideas about who we are must be rethought. Are we as easily defined as we may think? Is there a connection between the physical sense of self, and the spiritual? Humanity may be more malleable than we realise. We, as people may be much more fluid than we thought. Our modern way world is growing at an alarming rate. And as we grow scientifically and medically, we may begin to question all ways in which we live. The structures and boundaries in which we lead our lives are constantly wobbling and slipping away into a blurred grey area of existence. With genders bending, sexualities shifting and the world becoming in general a much smaller place, we must continue to question and challenge ourselves, not only logically but spiritually. We are truly remarkable creatures, us human beings. We rarely make much sense, even to ourselves, wherever our selves may be.
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