Recently, Chinese surgeons made a significant contribution to the plastic surgery. They successfully transplanted a penis for a man who injured his penis during an accident. However, after 14 days, the team regretfully reported that they had to cut the penis off because of patient’s psychological problems.

According to the report, the man complained that his quality of life was suffered greatly after the accident. He wanted to urinate in a standing position and have a satisfactory sex life.

Now he had what he had asked for— a new and young penis with which he can urinate in a standing position, and possibly have sex in the near future (God forbids). Why did he want to take aback what he had requested?

First of all, I don’t know whether urination in the standing position really affects the quality of life. Don’t all women urinate in a sitting position? It is kind of funny when you think about this.

Second, there are existing methods to reconstruct penis so that the patient can urinate in a traditional standing position. But the reconstructed one may be quite ugly.

Third, there is a stigma associated with the loss of one’s penis. In China and probably everywhere, penis is the symbol of manhood. Without it, he is not a man anymore. It is a very serious thing. Remember Lady Chatelier’s lover? I think this may be the reason that the patient wanted to have a real and normal penis.

Finally, the patient wanted to retain the ability of having sex. This is not an extravagant request, I think. He is not old enough to relinquish sex, and in some people’s eye, sex is the manhood. This is also a legitimate reason for the penis transplantation.

Some people may think transplanting genital organs for the purpose of having sex is a little bit too much. But I don’t agree with them. After more than sixty years of sex education, our society has already accepted the notion that sex and all things related to the sex are the indispensable parts of human life. Nobody will think it ridiculous if a woman does a lot of cosmetic surgeries to make herself more beautiful. Thousands of water bags are implanted into women’s breasts every year. We already had a French woman who obtained a new face from another woman. Penis transplantation is a natural extension of these surgeries.

So the real problem is that the patient overestimated his confidence in accepting his new organ. Patients generally have no mental problem in accepting kidneys and livers because they view these organs as life machine. But penis is different. It is associated with a lot psychological factors. Patients may find it ugly and alien, and may unconsciously reject it. Certainly, patients and their spouses may feel uncomfortable to use it in the intercourse. Impotent is a very likely complication.

Psychological factors are very important determinants in cosmetic surgeries. People may find the newly fixed eyes not as beautiful as they wished although everybody else thinks the new eyes are better than the previous ones. People have to get used to their new organs. Unfortunately, some people cannot pass this stage. That is what had happened for the newly “revitalized” man.