Less than a week after French doctors carried out the world's first partial face transplant on 27 November, the patient—a 38 year old woman—ate, drank, and spoke normally. Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard, who led the transplant team, said that it would be at least six months before they knew how much feeling or motor control the patient would have eventually.

Doctors have been technically ready to do such surgery for some time but have held back for ethical reasons. Carine Camby, the director general of the agency of biomedicine, part of the …