In considering the ethical issues, it is important to separate those which principally concern the recipient from those which affect the donor and the donor's family. Another paper will explore some of the legal questions. This paper considers the ethical issues of face transplants. iv There may also be a danger that clinicians will seek to legitimate what they propose to do by finding justifications within ethicists on whom they can rely-even if no one else does. 12, 13 There must be concern that scientific advance is being urged before legal frameworks can be established, and before ethicists have debated the morality of the surgery. 11 And caution is rightly being argued in the case of hand transplants too. 9, 10 Many of the problems are the same, but the ethical dilemmas that surround face transplants are, arguably, of a different dimension. 1, 8 There have been hand transplants-some 20 transplants since the first was performed on Clint Hallam in 1998. It is sometimes suggested that face transplants are morally analogous to limb transplants. But even before the flurry of activity in late 2005, it was clear that this latest venture in transplantation technology would proceed: there were statements of intent-a prospectus almost-from clinicians and researchers, most notably from a University of Louisville team. The Royal College of Surgeons in the UK 5, 6 and the Comité Consultatif National d' Ethique Pour les Sciences de la Vie et de la Santé in France 7 have cautioned against it. 3 iii It has been called “the boldest cut”, 4 and “a glorified sewing job”. 2 ii Full face transplants are to go ahead at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London, UK. According to the New Scientist, i the case was made out by a team in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, in 2004, 1 and the first partial face transplant was performed in Lyon, France, in November 2005 on a woman whose face was mutilated by a dog.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |