By Ryan Mercer/sports editor
   Face transplants add a new meaning to the phrase two-faced, but indeed, the first face transplant recently took place.
   I advocate transplants, as long as they improve the well being of a person. But getting a face transplant is not an answer for someone who has little self-esteem.
   I hope this technology is used as intended: to help someone who has been terribly injured.
   I agree with a person’s trying to enhance his or her looks, but only when that change is more than cosmetic.
   People who have been badly burned, scarred from an accident or born with a birth defect have been helped through advancements in plastic surgery.
   Unfortunately, we are much more used to celebrities using plastic surgery to make them more beautiful or keep them looking youthful.
   It is unfair for people to judge others by their looks, but we all pay too much attention to the outer shell. We generally form opinions on the first impression.
   People don’t have a choice about their looks when something terrible happens to them, leaving them scarred both inside and out. That’s when medical transplants and plastic surgery offer help.
   Take Isabelle Dinoire, for example, the French woman who had the first face transplant.
   Dinoire fell asleep on her couch, only to wake up after her dog had mauled her face.
   It is difficult to imagine what she must have felt when she looked in the mirror and did not see herself anymore.
   I don’t blame Dinoire for getting a face transplant.
   The surgery gives Dinoire a chance to look at herself again and not feel she is different. Even though the transplanted face is not her original face, she must be relieved to have a face that resembles hers.
   What makes the face transplant story so unique is that this procedure will open discussion for other types of transplants.
   I would like to see a transplant that can help replace limbs.
   With veterans returning from Iraq with missing limbs, transplanting limbs to these brave men and women should be a priority for medical scientists.
   Amputees who were hurt in accidents or born with birth defects should live normal lives.
   Helping people walk again would be the greatest achievement in medicine for the past 50 years.
   The biggest thought on my mind is that if we can replace faces, what can’t we do in the near future?
   Though time will tell if the face transplant is a total success, I wonder what medical miracle is next?