Parents Talk: Would You Let Your Child Get Plastic Surgery to Avoid Bullying?
In this week's Parents Talk, we ask parents how they feel about plastic surgery as a solution to bullying.
Ear-pinning, a nose job, chin-altering. Sounds like a plastic surgeon's menu of services, right?
Actually, it is. It's also the latest solution to bullying.
The Little Baby Face Foundation, a charitable organization providing plastic surgery to children born with facial deformities, has recently stepped up to help children alter their appearance to stave off bullies.
Nadia Ilse, 14, had her ears pinned, her nose done and her chin shaved to appear less angular. The teen, who was reportedly bullied by classmates in her Georgia hometown, said she now feels more beautiful and confident as a result of the surgery.
If your child was being bullied because of his or her appearance, would you allow them to get plastic surgery? What if the surgery was paid for by someone else? Tell us in the comments.
Maria Houser Conzemius
8:58 am on Monday, July 30, 2012
Bullying leaves scars that last a lifetime. My sister was small, thin, had straight hair, and wore coke-bottle glasses. She was legally blind but could see with correction. Her art teacher at Romulus Central School in Romulus, NY, drew a caricature of my sister and showed it to the other students in the class. It was really cruel, and the fact that the teacher initiated the bullying was not so rare in the late fifties/early sixties.
My sister is now a powerful attorney who sues companies that contaminate their employees with toxins, including deadly mesothelioma (from asbestos poisoning). She takes her revenge on corporate criminals who are also bullies and kill their employees. Often she takes depositions from poisoned employees as they are dying and sues on behalf of their estates.
jacob burgett
6:50 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
This is disgusting that someone would even consider such a thing. You are saying that we need to allow a child to have plastic surgery because a bully doesn't like their appearance? How about instead of trying to change the way the kid being bullied looks we change the attitude of the bully. Any parent who would do such should be ashamed. Imagine being the kid being picked on and now mom thinks you need surgery too. Way to boost morals. Just stupid
Bronwyn Threlkeld-Wiegand
6:19 am on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Regardless of bullying, if a child has a true physical deformity (cleft palate etc) which makes them an oddity or the focal point for negative attention, I support correcting that. I would never support cosmetic surgery to refine ones features based on some ideal that the media has promoted. The school needs to ramp up their anti bullying program and surgeons put down your scalpels.