Originally published January 1 2006
Ethics of face transplant surgery called into question
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Laurent Lantieri has called into question the much celebrated face transplant carried out at Amiens Hospital recently, claiming that the procedure was not an emergency procedure, one of the conditions prescribed as a requirement by a French medical ethics panel.
Doctors who gave a French woman the world's first partial face transplant did not try normal reconstructive surgery first, violating the advice of a French government ethics panel, a surgeon familiar with the case said Thursday.
Dr. Laurent Lantieri also said he was concerned the patient may not be fit psychologically for the operation and its demands.
The donor was a brain-dead patient whose family gave their consent.
Although the woman was mauled by a dog in May, surgeons immediately sought a face transplant donor without trying to repair her face through conventional surgical methods, said Lantieri, a reconstructive surgeon.
"The ethics committee said this kind of transplant should never be considered as an emergency procedure," said Lantieri, a reconstructive surgeon at Henri Mondor Hospital in Paris, which is part of the federation of public hospitals in France.
Lantieri said a surgeon in Lille who had seen the woman's medical record was concerned about her psychological suitability to endure the operation and adhere to the complex drugs needed life-long to ensure the operation's success.
The operation was done Sunday by ground-breaking transplant surgeon Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard and Dr. Bernard Devauchelle.
Dubernard led teams that performed a hand transplant in 1998 and the world's first double forearm transplant in January 2000.
The hand transplant recipient later had it amputated.
Doctors said he failed to take the required drugs and his body rejected the limb.
Lantieri said he was fearful that this transplant could turn out like that first hand transplant if the patient is psychologically unstable.
The face transplant patient was to have a second experimental treatment today an infusion of the donor's bone marrow to try to prevent rejection of the new tissue.
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