The first successful human hand allograft, performed in Lyon in September 1998 by an international surgical team including one of the authors (NH), was greeted with general admiration in the British press, some scepticism in the French media, and surprising disinterest by medical ethicists. It might be thought, at least by English-speaking readers, that the case is therefore closed. On this basis, hand transplants cross technological frontiers but not ethical ones. They raise no ethical questions that have not been answered long since, in favour of transplantation. There can be no objections except from die-hard opponents of progress in science, according to one of the very few articles in medical ethics to have appeared on the issue of limb transplants, which concludes in favour of cadaveric hand transplantation provided professional, procedural standards of competence have been met (including field strength of the clinical team, scientific background of the innovation, and open . . . [Full text of this article]