Question: What's your view on cosmetic surgery?

Kevin Motherway answered on 10 Nov 2014:

All Surgery carries risks and you’ve got to be sure the risk of the anesthetic (albeit very low) is warranted. Many peoples’ confidence can be severely impacted by an aspect of their physical appearance and their lives would be made far better by having surgery. But its not the cure all either.

Consider two women. One has breast cancer and has to have a breast removed and then has reconstructive surgery….most people wouldn’t bat an eyelid. Another woman seeks to increase her breast size and many people might sit in judgement. To both women the issue may be devastating for their confidence and the surgery may give them a better quality of life once they are happier with their appearance. As long as somebody is aware of the risks of having the surgery and are having the work done for their own confidence and not to please somebody else then I don’t see why anyone else should sit in judgement on their actions. I do however think that there should be safeguards in place to ensure that people are doing it for the right reasons and that only people who have sat down with a fully qualified medial professional to articulate why they want it are permitted to go forward.

Schooldays can be rough and people can be bullied for their physical appearance by people whose own self confidence is low and that’s why they are bullying. Is surgery the answer to this? No. Your physical appearance is just part of what makes you who your are and how people see you. You don’t fall in love with somebody’s hair, nose or their bra size. You fall in love with who they are and how you feel when you’re with them. Looks fade (my days as an international male model a far behind me and that’s why I was forced to get into science) but unbelievably the same person who fell in love with me over 20 years ago still finds me funny and even cute (yes she does wear glasses). It aint easy being a teenager with voices breaking, spots everywhere, bodies changing (and every one at their own pace)..hang in there. It gets a lot lot better and you eventually get to the stage where you are so confident you simply do not care what anybody else thinks about how you look and you relax into the personality that you are and that’s whats really attractive to friends and the opposite sex. That was a real wandering answer I know.