According to The Local – Germany’s news in English, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc and the Social Democrats are going to start the new year with a new nanny state effort. The leaders want to ban cosmetic surgery for kids:
Jens Spahn, health spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union told the Spiegel magazine: “Youth protection is also about protecting young people from the consequences of a wrong-headed beauty craze.
“Unnecessarily subjecting a young body which is still growing, to such a significant procedure can have dire consequences, both physically and mentally.
“I think it is completely unacceptable to give a 15-year-old a breast enlargement as a Christmas present. Therefore plastic surgery that is not necessary on medical grounds should be banned.”
In America, federal regulations prohibit breast implants for those under 18, unless the surgery is for reconstruction. Women have to be 22 to receive silicon implants for cosmetic purposes. Rates of surgery among teen-agers have dropped over the last few years, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Based on its data, the society reports this trend:
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- 2002: 220,077 procedures, 3.2% of the total
- 2006: 178,041 procedures, 1.6% of the total
- 2011: 131,877 procedures, 1.4% of the total
- 2012: 130,502 procedures, 1.3% of the total
A report from The German Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons shows similar numbers: only 1.3 percent of the aesthetic procedures were performed on minors. The most popular type of surgery is also the same in America and Germany: ear tucks.
The Society also reports that the most common procedures are:
- Otoplasty (ear surgery)
- Rhinoplasty (nose reshaping)
- Breast reduction
- Correction of breast asymmetry
- Treatment of gynecomastia (excessive breast development in boys)
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This proposed solution for a problem that doesn’t exist shows that politicians are the same around the world.
