Merci Beaucoup

The London Times reports that face transplantation can be profitable - to the patient:

THE Frenchwoman who had the first face transplant has signed a deal that could make her tens of thousands of pounds from the sale of photographs and a film of the operation.

As the row over the ethics of the transplant escalated, it emerged yesterday that Isabelle Dinoire, 38, had agreed to let the British documentary film-maker Michael Hughes film the graft at Amiens University Hospital in northern France.

The deal was signed by Mr Hughes, the patient and the medical team in August — three months before the operation and before a donor had been found.

The revelation has fuelled concern in France over the transplant. Emmanuel Hirsch, a professor of medical ethics, said: “It is not only the commercial aspect that shocks me. Medical practice demands secrecy and confidentiality. On an ethical level, this is not proper.”

Mme Dinoire told Le Parisien newspaper yesterday that she felt very well, but that she had been upset by the media coverage. “I need to live through these moments serenely,” she said. “I also want my family to be left out of all this.”

Under the deal, which could be worth more than £100,000, Mme Dinoire will keep all the profits from the sale of the photographs and the film after deducting Mr Hughes’s costs and the fees of the agency distributing his work.

“I’m not trying to get rich out of this,” said Mr Hughes, 56, who works for Media-Pro, a film producer in Lyons. “I’m interested in making a film that explains the operation as well as possible. We agreed that all the profits will go to the patient.”