BOSTON (AP) -- A Boston hospital has given a surgical team permission to perform partial face transplants to certain disfigured patients, according to a published report.

Brigham and Women's is the second U.S. hospital to make public its plans to offer the rare and controversial procedure. The first is the Cleveland Clinic.

Only three partial face transplants have been announced worldwide. Two were performed in France, and one in China.

Critics argue it is unethical to expose patients to the risks of a transplant for a non-lifesaving procedure, but The Boston Globe reported that Brigham and Women's would sanction transplants only for patients already taking immunosuppressant drugs. That would minimize the risk of tissue rejection and infection.

Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, associate director of the hospital's burn unit, said he is motivated in part by the "helplessness I feel when I have a very difficult case." He said he has seen four patients in recent years who might qualify.

Isabelle Dinoire received the world's first partial face transplant. The French woman was severely disfigured in May 2005 by her dog. In November 2005, surgeons grafted the lips, nose and chin of a brain-dead woman onto her face in groundbreaking surgery.

Dinoire's immune system nearly rejected the transplant twice, but she was given immunosuppressants that helped overcome the threat.