The first penis transplant performed in the United States has been successfully carried out at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on a 64-year-old man whose penis had been removed because of cancer, the New York Times reports. The recipient, a Massachusetts man named Thomas Manning, has chosen to be identified publicly in order to combat the stigma surrounding genital injuries, a stigma perpetrated by lowbrow blog posts, such as this one, which seek to exploit the phrase “penis transplant” in a crass bid for attention:
Thomas Manning, 64, a bank courier from Halifax, Mass., underwent the 15-hour transplant operation on May 8 and 9. The organ came from a deceased donor.
Mr. Manning welcomed questions and said he wanted to speak out publicly to help dispel the shame and stigma associated with genital cancers and injuries, and to let other men know there was hope of having normal anatomy restored.
Similar operations are planned soon in Boston for a man injured in a car accident and at Johns Hopkins for an Afghanistan veteran, doctors told the Times. Further inducing feelings of guilt and shame among news bloggers who snickered in delight upon seeing the phrase “penis transplant” on Monday morning, one expert said that the procedure could be particularly useful in reducing suicide rates among young men who feel hopeless because they’ve lost sexual function as a result of a combat injury:
Veterans are a major focus of transplant programs in the United States because suicide rates are exceptionally high in soldiers with severe damage to the genitals and urinary tract, Dr. Cetrulo said. “They’re 18- to 20-year-old guys, and they feel they have no hope of intimacy or a sexual life,” he said. “They can’t even go to the bathroom standing up.”
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More about Manning:
Some people close to him urged him to keep the operation a secret, but he refused, saying that was like lying, and he had nothing to be ashamed of.
Find out more about organ donation here.
