Medical History was made in 1998 when doctors performed the world's first hand transplant. The recipient of a new hand was 51-year-old New Zealand Native Clint Hallam who lost his own limb during a chain saw accident while serving a two-year prison sentence for fraud. The ground breaking procedure took place in Lyon, France. A team led by Australian microsurgeon Earl Owen and Jean-Michel Dubernard of France operated for 13 hours by grafting the hand of a deceased motorcyclist to Hallam's right stump. The patient was put on medication shortly following the operation which would reduce the subsequent rejection process. The surgery was a huge success attaining international media attention. A year later, Hallam was performing basic tasks such as holding a cup and swimming, as well as aspiring to learn how to play the piano. Hallam had his new hand for two and half years before he sought the help of surgeons to have it removed. Sick with the flu and unable to recover, he stopped taking the immunosuppressant medication during which time his body began to reject his hand. Doctors who carried out the operation complained that he had not followed their orders and had failed to complete his course of anti-rejection drugs. Hallam, on the other hand (no pun intended) has said that he followed a strict regime of physiotherapy and only gave up the medicine to overcome the flu. The doctors initially did not want to amputate on the grounds that the body was inviolable under French law. He was finally able to get it removed in a short operation at an unidentified London Hospital almost three years after the initial surgery1. The very first hand transplant was attempted in Ecuador, in 1964. The rejection process took course in under two weeks and the new limb had to be amputated. Hallam was the recipient of the first successful transplant, and a number of similar procedures have been performed since then, most in the USA and China. The selection process for this surgery is extremely strict. It is limited to patients only who lost their limb as a result of trauma, or as lifesaving interventions that injured to the limb. The potential patients now also undergo a number of mental examinations to determine whether or not they will be able to cope with such an ordeal. I chose this topic for my essay because I am fascinated with transplants in general. The not