Should Cosmetic Surgery Be Banned?
When it comes to ones’ looks, one immediately points out the unwanted features in them. Many, after pointing them out, seek for easy solutions to fix them. Therefore, ending up with a solution, cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery, also known as aesthetic surgery, is the process of enhancing, or improving physical looks. Plastic surgery (P-SURG) is similar to cosmetic surgery but serve different purposes. Plastic surgery is the reconstruction of someone’s appearance which is, in most cases, due to accidents such as burns, diseases, birth disorders or traumas. Keep in mind that cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery are not the same, even though plastic surgery is often referred as being a synonym of cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is popular around the world, and it has been proven to be capable of causing emotional and physical damage. Therefore, cosmetic surgery should be banned, since diseases, burns, birth defects or traumas, aren’t the reason of the demand for enhancing any physical appearance.
Plastic surgery has been used for many years but its purpose has changed over time. During the civil war, many surgeons used plastic surgery to reconstruct soldiers’ physical appearance after an accident or a battle. Many soldiers in those situations, would physically lose who they once were. Thus, starting the cosmetic surgery business and ending up spreading all around the world. However, people nowadays use it to reach the set standards of
Several plastic surgery clinics were set up in the United States for these purposes. After the servicemen were properly treated and were free of infection, their deformities could go under the knife. Because the plastic surgeons of the time specifically worked with war wounds, they knew exactly what the best solution for each case was with the medicine of the time. Plastic surgery continues to be a leading fixator for war-torn bodies and creates peace within the individual. Understanding the techniques of the first plastic surgeons can be beneficial in order to make modern medicine the best it can
Thesis: Plastic Surgery has been a problem in American society. People shouldn’t feel ashamed of their body, their looks, or be insecure about any body part because everyone is beautiful in their own way. Problems of plastic surgery include expenses, health issues, and medical malpractice.
Plastic surgery was used for restorative purposes in World War 1. During trench warfare in World War 1 there was many soldiers suffering from facial injuries, such as shattered jaws, blown-off noses, and gaping skull.
Next, the evolution of cosmetic surgery overtime has lead to present day uses. In the past, cosmetic surgery was used to help soldiers deformed by war. It was a method used to restore the veteran’s features, in order for them to feel comfortable again. The surgery was purely done to lessen the violent effects of trench warfare. However, overtime, the general public gained an interest in cosmetic surgery, ranging from a positive to a negative approach. This was partly due to increase in different ethnic backgrounds, which ultimately lead to “an emphasis on self -representation and made people feel they had to look a certain way to be ‘perfect’,”(Lieberman, 1998). This integration of different cultures created a drive towards looking one’s best, which caused the idea of cosmetic surgery to stray from a medical/restorative approach, to an opportunity for transformation.
Cosmetic surgery, a type of elective surgery undertaken to alter a person’s appearance for reasons beyond injury, illness, or disease, has become increasingly pervasive in society in the past few decades despite sparking controversial debates. (Coleman, 171) While reconstructive surgery is condoned, cosmetic surgery occupies a gray area where physicians “dedicated to saving lives, healing, and promoting health” perform “invasive surgical operations on healthy bodies for the sake of improving appearance.” (Miller, 353) Nevertheless, demand for it is higher than ever with people looking to surgery as an easy method for changing their appearances. This essay will argue that cosmetic surgery is indeed ethical for physicians to perform by examining it through the perspective of the four basic principles of medical ethics: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.
“Cosmetic Surgery is the reshaping of body parts through surgical procedures” (“Cosmetic Surgery”). “In the United States the organizing bodies of plastic surgery were founded between the world wars, with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons established in 1931 and the American Board of Plastic Surgery established in 1937”(“Plastic Surgery” 2). Cosmetic surgery can be various things such as Botox injections or elective surgeries such as breast augmentations and correction for nose deformities (“Plastic Surgery” 7). Men and women have both been known to undergo cosmetic surgeries for their
In recent years plastic surgery is something that has become a very popular trend, and also where many young people are even lining up for it. Plastic surgery is to reconstruct or repair parts of the body, especially by the transfer of tissue it can be used for treatment of injury or cosmetic reasons. It enhances one’s physical appearance, allowing him or her to achieve a look he or she desires. For example, a women’s buttocks can be enlarged or reduced, or a nose can be straightened or lifted. Many people find themselves changing their bodies and wondering if perfecting their appearance would make life a bit more perfect. Plastic surgery can enhance someone’s level of confidence and boost their self-esteem, but it is something that can have very serious consequences people need to be aware of.
In a society so consumed by the ideology of beauty, it makes sense as to why so many women these days undergo cosmetic surgery. The definition of beauty has long been obstructed and changed. In the past, if you look at the woman, you will see they are curvy, during this era being thin meant you were poor where as a beautiful and wealthy woman would be plump because she could afford fine dining. As society has changed, being slender has become the new trend, creating the idea that in order to be truly beautiful one must be thin. The movie stars in Hollywood, although most people realize the beautifying changes that are made to the pictures, this idea of 'beauty ' and 'desire ' still lingers in the mind of whoever comes across it. Our society is bombarded with several different ideologies of beauty but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The beauty standards that have been set should not be what are shaping people around the world and influencing them to go through with plastic surgery. The use of plastic surgery has changed from a medical procedure used to reconstruct the wounded or people with birth defects to reconstructing something people do not like about themselves. Plastic surgery was used during WWI in 1910 and after the war, skin grafting grew. The first training program in the United States was in 1924 thanks to Dr. John Davis. In 1950-1959, plastic surgery was used broadly to repair cleft pallet. It wasn’t until about
Plastic surgery reasons are not only reasons for cosmetic surgery because many people need cosmetic surgery to recover normal life from injury or burn. In the U.S. today, this is a serious issue to recent wars. In the U.S. war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are sometimes injured or burned. Plastic surgery can give them normal face, hand or life again. For instance, since 2001, about 900 U.S. service members have been injured with severe burns in Iraq and Afghanistan and many of these burns are on face (Dao par. 6). Of course, other people suffer burns or face disfiguring due to fires or accidents. Also, other people are born with genetic problems, like disease disfigures about the face or body and birth defects that is making a face or body look not normal.
Plastic surgery can be delineated as the branch of surgery concerned with therapeutic or cosmetic repair or re-formation of missing, injured, or malformed tissues or parts. (“Plastic
We live in a society where people worship beauty. As far as recorded history people have gone to extremes to seek beauty. From foot binding in China to wearing strangulating corsets in Victorian era. People from different race and culture have experimented in every way possible way to look beautiful prior to this popular age of plastic surgery. It’s very common to hear people complain about their appearance, whether it’s their crocked nose, thin lips or flat chest. Remarkably, plastic surgery has been the solution for people who complain. Most people tend to think of plastic surgery as only cosmetic surgery and not as reconstructive surgeries. Plastic surgeries seems to be an invention of modern technology; however its roots lie in the ancient history of India. An Indian surgeon contributed towards the establishment of plastic surgery, it was intended to correct physical deformities acquired during birth, accident, disease or war. These surgeries did not gain the popularity it has today until the First World War. It was during the late 60’s, when doctors started realizing the endless possibilities of plastic surgeries. With the help of this surgery a trained surgeon can replace an amputate body part, remove skin cancer, get rid of unattractive scars and visible birthmarks or rescaling a nose or enhance body parts. Today more and more people from different age groups opt for plastic surgeries to obtain dramatic physical changes. These surgeries were envisioned to restore
To sum up, plastic surgery is aimed to make humanity look better. Thousands of people have these operations performed each year. However,
Is Plastic Surgery a helpful tool to modify your body in order to feel confident or just another deadly weapon? Throughout the years, the word ‘Perfect’ has caused a war between people and their physical image causing them to make an outrageous decision of changing how they look and feel, not only on the outside but also on the inside. They undergo many operations just to please others. Just like a Ying-Yang symbol; there’s always bad in good, vice versus. Plastic surgery is not always evil. For example, a young girl had gotten in a tragic fire accident which left her with a massive scar on her face and body, this is where Plastic Surgery would be a useful tool. It would not only fix this girl 's face but it would also bring happiness and not to be teased and stared at everywhere she goes. Or if women were to successfully fought breast Cancer but was only left with scars where her breast should be, this kind of operation would help this woman bring confidence in who she was.
People have created the modern technical methods to serve the beauty needs of everyone. Aesthetic technologies are going along with the change of beauty needs over the time and adjusting the perception of beauty. Not only nature beauty brings criterion for beauty definition, but also artificial beauty is mutating the standard prescript and the view of beauty. Elective plastic surgery is becoming an acceptable solution for anyone who would like to improve the appearance. The statistics in Medical News Today showed that “approximately 65,000 surgical cosmetic procedures were performed in 2008 in the UK - 50% more than 2003.” Additionally, the official statistics of cosmetic surgery in the U.S. was far more popular. In 2007, there were a total of 1,435,444 of surgical cosmetic procedures. A number of non-surgical cosmetic procedures were 7,113,914, which were higher than the number of surgical cosmetic procedures. In 2014, about 15,622,866 non-surgical cosmetic procedures were performed, which increased doubled in seven years. The figures pointed that more and more people come to elective plastic surgery to achieve the level of perfect beauty. So why have these figures that growth? Despite knowing the hidden risks in surgical elective plastic procedures, people are getting more and more elective plastic surgeries because the obsession with beautiful body image, social criticism because being ugly, and addicted to elective plastic surgery.
Messages within the media indirectly contribute to the rising rate of plastic surgery. Desires to meet the idealisms of media representations are often so consuming that people demand plastic surgery despite all of its associated risks and controversies. To compensate for this up and coming surgical trend, technology has developed more reasonable and attainable options for the public. Millions of operations are now able to be performed on those wishing to fulfill specific gratifcations toward their own personal appearance and/or self-esteem. This is a serious problem in that people are unaware or just simply