For the living, a donated face. For the dead, a lifelike replacement

NYU surgeons hope a 3-D printed reproduction will encourage people to donate the faces of dying family members for use as transplants

Most medical advances benefit the living. This one is for the dead.

Sometime in the coming weeks or months, a brain-dead person, probably a man, will be wheeled into the plastic surgery department at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan. A technician will slowly run a scanner over his face, recording the tiniest contour and detail.

Then surgeons will cut off the dying person’s face and attach it to a disfigured man who has been waiting for a face transplant since last summer.
 

And downtown from the hospital, in a basement below what could easily be confused with a Kinko’s, a team