I’ve always been bemused by cosmetic surgery. Sure, it has great value for reconstructing those who have suffered the devastating effects of war or disease, for example. However, putting foreign objects into one’s body for the purposes of vanity is something that completely passes me by. Still, some want to do it and if they are aware of the risks, then that’s their choice. Their money and all that.
Then it all goes horribly wrong. There’s an argument to be made regarding the refusal by some clinics not to remove the implants. They took the money, they carried out the operation, if the product is faulty, then they have a responsibility under tort law.
That, though, is not the end of the matter. As is usual, when the news media gets a head of steam up, having whipped people into a frenzy of righteous outrage, comes the predictable punch line.
Cosmetic surgery advertising should be banned and annual checks carried out on surgeons, the industry has said.
The same old, same old. If the industry cannot manage to regulate itself, then banning advertising isn’t going to help. Besides, advertising is not the villain of the piece, here. We already have a system in place for dealing with misleading advertising, so a ban isn’t necessary.
The mindset has become so deeply ingrained into the national psyche that a ban is the first knee-jerk response to each and every problem that finds itself under public scrutiny when something goes wrong – the government must “do something” and a ban is a nice cosy solution. No, a ban is not the answer. It never is. It makes for a good headline though.
Still, love the acronym Baaps…
Ahem. As you were.
We need to thank the person who came up with the word bansturbator, it sums up the ban-it mindset in one, newly minted, word.
I also noticed that, according to some of the banners being waved by people protesting about this issue, those faulty breast implants are radioactive.
Maybe they glow in the dark 😆
This is from Christopher Booker’s column in the Telegraph, 14 Jan-
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The PIP implants scandal is yet another triumph for Cameron’s beloved single market … Forty thousand women, we are told, have become the victims of a faulty product, fraudulently sold by a French firm,… Our ministers, led by Andrew Lansley, insist that, where these devices were inserted by private firms, it is they who are liable for sorting out the mess.
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What this miserable episode has in fact revealed is a fundamental flaw in the system set up under the EU’s Single Market, whereby hundreds of thousands of different products are now regulated. The implants in question were approved by a French agency under EU law, which stamped them with the EU’s “CE mark” (Communauté Européen). This means, under single market rules, that not only can they legally be sold anywhere in the EU, but that no one is allowed to question them… it would have been illegal under EU law even for anyone officially to test them, to discover whether they were in fact as safe as the CE mark promised.
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http://tinyurl.com/7egbjr6
It’s impossible to say ‘BAAPS’ without leering.
Odd that they talk of banning advertising but not banning cosmetic surgery (except where medically necessary). I suppose there’s all that tax to consider…
Personally, I’d have to be sedated to be taken into hospital even if there was something actually wrong with me. The idea of volunteering to have my bits hacked is just beyond me.
Besides, boobs that look like the lumps on the sides of a Dalek are not attractive.
Re the reference by Mjolinir, Christopher Booker has misunderstood the object of the “CE Mark”. Before it came into being, each country in Europe had it’s own standards (we had the British Standards Institute) and thus was able to prevent the sale of, say, German products in the UK because they did not comply with the relevant BS even though they complied with the German Standard (DIN?). The same applied the other-way, so Germany could refuse British goods because they did not have a German standard.
Christopher booking is wrong about it being illegal to test products.
Any-one who buys anything is entitled to test it in any way they see fit, and if it fails whatever standard it is supposed to meet, they can reject it.
Any-one who wants to buy anything can set whatever standards they want and ask any manufacturer anywhere in the world to make it to that standard. They will of course pay extra because it is non-standard(!).
If any-one has any doubts about the quality of a product from a particular supplier they should go some-where else.
The fact that they may have a “CE mark” does not force you to buy from them!