Some friends and I were discussing the ethics of the plastic surgeons who took money to destroy Michael Jackson’s face. I began to wonder–is there a limit to what surgeons are allowed to do?
Then I remembered that limits exist. I’ve read about people who want to castrate themselves or remove limbs for other than medical reasons. It’s illegal, so they are forced to either go to underground doctors or even (as I read in this article) to perform the castration on themselves.
The question is, who decides that it’s illegal to chop off a foot, but it’s okay for Michael Jackson to chop off most of his lips? And what exactly is the dividing line? What criteria do they use to determine what is acceptable? Cause I can think of few things that horrify me like MJ’s face…
IANAL and WAG, but my guess is that any such laws would be state-based and that very few would say that it’s illegal to chop off a limb if you really want to. It wouldn’t be an assault or a battery if the recipient consented to the surgery. Now, if someone had a limb removed and then tried to get some sort of disability payments then I imagine the state or the feds would step in and say that it constituted fraud. I seem to recall reading about at least one fraud prosecution of someone who had a friend shoot him in the foot to apply for insurance and disability benefits. I have no idea of the particulars and have no cite, though. I would expect that cosmetic surgeons and other medical professionals have a code of professional ethics which would address the idea of cutting off a healthy limb for cosmetic reasons, not to mention the Hippocratic Oath. “First, do no harm…”
i don’t know if it’s illegal to do such drastic surgery, but i think the surgeons don’t want to take on surgeries that carry a large amout of risk. that could be medical boards revoking their license, a patient realizing it’s a mistake, etc. michael jackson has so much damned money, the surgeons probably charge him a ungodly amount of money to do it, enough to cover years worth of malpractice insurance.
Well, in the case of his nose, it could be partly incompetance. Or just too much cutting.
If I recall (it was a long time ago…) when MJ was a kid with an unaltered face he had a fairly typical African-derieved nose - short and broad. Which looks normal. At some point he had it narrowed - which is OK, I guess, if we’re talking an informed adult - but narrow noses (such as found in Europeans) are also longer than African noses. His was narrowed, but kept at the same length which looks… um… not natural. A good plastic surgeon should know this, but who knows the skill level of whoever MJ went to? Perhaps in attempt to fix the problem he went back, but you can only cut and sew so much before you run into trouble. Or just one infection or bad slip of the scalpel can result in loss of blood flow and sloughing of tissue (rumored to have happened, although I have no proof). This would only make matters worse.
As for the rest - well, his skin is obviously bleached. Viteligo can turn a black man “white”, and if the pigment loss is extensive enough then bleaching the rest of his skin to match the lighter areas is a legitimate approach and looks less bizarre than a “pinto” human. And both bleaching and viteligo would leave him extremely vulnerable to sun damage, accounting for his hats and covering up while outside - but if this is the case I think he would have gotten more sympathy for being up front about the problem instead of slathering on layers and layers of makeup and trying to deny there was a problem for so long. Not that I have any objection to men (particularly performers) wearing makeup, but it was the way he was doing it that I found objectionable.
Personally, I do think his modifications make for a very weird appearance, but he’s a weird guy. I’ve know less famous people who underwent extensive plastic surgery. One was an Asian determined to look Caucasian - and the results usually are far from the desired. You can’t change your ethnic group, and I think surgeons who pander to those attempting it will only cause pain and poverty. On the other hand, there are folks sticking jewelery through every available body part, getting extensive tattoos, or even sporting horns these days. If that’s truly what they want, and they are informed, consenting adults… gosh, I find it hard to say “no” even if I can’t understand where they’re coming from or where they’re going.
I guess it depends on part on context. If MJ truly wanted to look like an ugly white woman well, it’s his body. But if he wanted something else - well, it’s one more tragic aspect to “wacko Jacko”. I have to wonder if this is an aspect of a self-destructive streak in his personality.
Are you sure that it’s actually illegal to do the more grotesque modifications you mentioned? I was under the impression that doctors generally would not do it for two good reasons:
the hippocratic oath: first, do no harm
the liability for lawsuit, if the patient decides he really isn’t happy without feet or something.
After all, sex-change operations are legal (though there is a thourough preparatory program) and that’s about as extensive an elective surgery as you can think of.
In that case, the dividing line is mostly up to the doctors opinions on what constitutes “harm”.
Well, the American Medical Association would be a logical place to start. A quick phone call to Amy at the AMA offered the following info:
The AMA does not have any set criteria that they force the doctor to adhere to. Most of what a doctor would and would not do is based on common ethical sense. But patient consent is the kicker. Essentially, as long as the patient signs the proper releases, the surgeon can perform just about any surgery that he or she is comfortable doing.
Just a thought maybe it has something to do with cutting off something = disability = no taxes from that person (as evil governments are) . And or maybe the safety issues surrounding cutting bits off . I recall a long time ago there was this man who had an extreme pain in his leg but the NHS waiting lists were so long he could not get an amputation within a year so he went to a rail way line ties himself to it and got it sliced like that.He wasn’t charged with any crime or anything (but he probably got phantom limb syndrome which is worse than a painful limb attached)
Have any hardcore Star Trek or ElfQuest fans gotten themselves pointed ears? I like to tease my wife that she’d be so cute!! if she had elf ears. (She would too!)
The liability is a bigger issue than you give it credit for. Say you want me to amputate your leg so you can get a pegleg like your favourite pirate from Yellowbeard. I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the operation, alternative operations, complications and you agree to the procedure with a witness. I cut off your leg. You tell me that you regret the operation and any surgeon in their right mind would not do this operation on someone and I should have known that you were not in sound mind at that time even though you seemed to understand the issues and I answered all your questions. You just might have a case. I’m told that, in court, the actual signing of a consent form is not worth much.
I’ll Bet Michael Jackson has body dismorphic disorder. If true, he never thinks he looks good or even normal and would go to ridiculous lengths to alter his appearance. Shame on the plastic surgeons who indulge his disorder.
I was in a plastic surgeon’s office once and saw a young woman with very large breasts. Since this surgeon did a lot of breast augmentatios, I commented that this patient appeared to be post-op. He informed me that she was asking for even bigger implants and that he turned her down. It was his policy not to encourage inappropriate plastic surgery.
BTW, he had no doubt that she would be able to find a surgeon who would accede to her request.
A friend of mine is a physician of MJ’s and works with MJ’s current plastic surgeon, who is attempting to undo some of the damage done to MJ. My friend confirmed what many people have long suspected: essentially, a prior surgeon removed too much of MJ’s nasal structure, which has collapsed. It’s not clear whether restorative work is even possible.
I have an exgirlfriend who is Korean. She told me about a procedure in which the eyes are widdened and a eyelid fold is some how added. Her parents wanted her to have it done so she would look more American. She had to go to Korea to have the procedure done though, because she said that it was illegal here in the US. I never saw the results . . .
The eyelid surgery your Korean friend possibly had is not illegal in the USA, although that is a frequently heard rumor. Such surgery - to change one’s appearance to look like a different ethnic group - is, however, considered unethical by many surgeons in this country. Also, many American surgeons have little expertise in performing it. So going abroad isn’t entirely unreasonable.
