January 2, 2006--No Refunds, No Exchanges
Now that the gift buying, gift exchanging, and post-Christmas bargain-hunting frenzy has subsided, for those of you who think about your gifting in advance of the holiday season, with the assistance of the NY Times (see link) let me share with you a gift idea that perhaps hasn’t occurred to you. Literally a gift that keeps on giving--plastic surgery.
This recently passed holiday, those in the vanguard of this movement saved their nickels and dimes to buy parents face lifts ($15,000 per) or sisters Botox treatments (only $500 per) or gathered $7,500 for a wife's nose job.
Of course the Times being the kind of paper it is gets into all the moral and psychological issues involved in someone presumptively deciding to take the initiative to alter someone else’s face or body. If I think my nose is fine, thank you very much, who are you to arrange to put me under the knife? And if I like my spouse’s breasts who are you to arrange for her to have them propped up? One surgeon in LA actually turned away a fellow who was attempting to buy a boob job for his girlfriend, saying, “If she gets new breasts she doesn’t want just for the boyfriend’s sake and then the relationship ends, it will be hell for her in every way.”
And then of course what happens if the giftee dies on the operating table? Thankfully this doesn’t happen all that often but did occur recently on a number of occasions at one of the finest hospitals in New York City. This starts to feel like a potential dream situation for a personal injury attorney. Maybe the gift of plastic surgery should include liability insurance?
But if you are wondering if this form of giving is just a cottage industry let me assure you that it is catching on, initially as you might imagine on both coasts. A survey among 100 surgeons conducted by the American Academy of Facial Plastic Surgeons revealed that whereas in 2001 just 31 percent indicated they had patients who received the gift of surgery by 2004, 49 percent had patients whose face lifts and lip augmentation were presents.
I am attracted to this gift revolution for a number of reasons—I could use lots of plastic surgery but frankly can’t afford it; and even if I could put the money together for the procedures, how would I decide which surgeon to engage or where to have it done—Brazil? Beverly Hills? Park Avenue? But above all I hate dealing with gift wrapping and this too solves that vexing problem.
This recently passed holiday, those in the vanguard of this movement saved their nickels and dimes to buy parents face lifts ($15,000 per) or sisters Botox treatments (only $500 per) or gathered $7,500 for a wife's nose job.
Of course the Times being the kind of paper it is gets into all the moral and psychological issues involved in someone presumptively deciding to take the initiative to alter someone else’s face or body. If I think my nose is fine, thank you very much, who are you to arrange to put me under the knife? And if I like my spouse’s breasts who are you to arrange for her to have them propped up? One surgeon in LA actually turned away a fellow who was attempting to buy a boob job for his girlfriend, saying, “If she gets new breasts she doesn’t want just for the boyfriend’s sake and then the relationship ends, it will be hell for her in every way.”
And then of course what happens if the giftee dies on the operating table? Thankfully this doesn’t happen all that often but did occur recently on a number of occasions at one of the finest hospitals in New York City. This starts to feel like a potential dream situation for a personal injury attorney. Maybe the gift of plastic surgery should include liability insurance?
But if you are wondering if this form of giving is just a cottage industry let me assure you that it is catching on, initially as you might imagine on both coasts. A survey among 100 surgeons conducted by the American Academy of Facial Plastic Surgeons revealed that whereas in 2001 just 31 percent indicated they had patients who received the gift of surgery by 2004, 49 percent had patients whose face lifts and lip augmentation were presents.
I am attracted to this gift revolution for a number of reasons—I could use lots of plastic surgery but frankly can’t afford it; and even if I could put the money together for the procedures, how would I decide which surgeon to engage or where to have it done—Brazil? Beverly Hills? Park Avenue? But above all I hate dealing with gift wrapping and this too solves that vexing problem.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home