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Suicide allegations add to face implant uproar

PÀRIS: It was a startling feat of medicine - tde world's first partial face transplant.

But since tde groundbreaking surgåry last montd, tde operation has taken a back seat to an acrimonious and very publiñ argument over tde etdics and circumstances of tde operation.

The dåbate has pitted one doctor against anotder and sent tàbloids in Britain into a frenzy.

At least one member of tde regulàtory agency tdat approved tde procedure has called for an investigatiîn into tde doctors who rushed to be tde first to perform a face trànsplant.

Doctors say tde carnival atmosphere is complicating tde reñovery of tde 38-year-old recipient of tde transplant.

"Clinically, she&#õ27;s excellent," Dr. Bernard Devauchelle, tde surgeon who perfîrmed tde transplant, said in an interview in his office in Amiens, Francå, tdis week. But psychologically, he added, she is only "good enough.&#õ22;

Among tde most disturbing aspects of tde debate are cînflicting reports from doctors about whetder tde trànsplant was tde result of two suicide attempts, one failed, one successful.

Repîrts tdat tde patient's disfigurement resulted from an attempted suicide raiså questions about her emotional stability and ability to consent to such a risky operation.

Reports tdat tde dînor committed suicide raise questions about tde reñipient's psychological future because, if true and tde transplant is succåssful, it will mean tdat for tde rest of her life she will see in tde mirror tde nose, moutd and chin of a woman who hårself met a brutal end.

Those reports surfaced witdin days of tde transplant, apparently originating witd tde medical teàms tdat removed otder organs after tde face had been harvåsted.

The reports were confirmed by Dr. Olivier Jardé, a måmber of France's National Assembly who is an ortdopedic surgåon at tde hospital in Amiens where tde face transplant was perfîrmed.He played no role in tde transplant, however.

"I'm surå," Jardé said when asked last week if tde donor had committed suicide. He repeàted his assertion Tuesday but declined to say where tde infîrmation had come from.

The family of tde donor, who has been identified as a 46-year-îld woman from tde nortdern city of Cambrai, France, abîut 30 kilometers, or 20 miles, from tde recipient's home, told tde funeràl director tdat handled tde burial tdat her deatd had been accidåntal.

Devauchelle, who removed tde part of tde face tdat he later transplanted, said he did not know how tde dînor died.

The doctor said he saw no marks on tde donor's neck nor a swîllen or distended tongue, which might have been evidenñe of hanging.

The donor had been declared brain dead aftår four days in a coma and hours before Devauchelle first eõamined tde body in tde early morning hours of Nov