What does the Church say about plastic surgery?
Plastic surgery seems to be very much in fashion: open any magazine and a celebrity will be having something added to or taken away! Channel Four has recently had a whole series called Nip and Tuck. So your question is a very good one.
In the Book of Genesis we read how God created us, and especially that he created us "in his own image and likeness." That can seem a bit strange: why don't we all look the same? Is God thin or fat, short or tall, black or white? The point is that we are all unique and that we are all in the image of God. Our body - whatever we look like - is in the image of God, and so we should not strive to change it.
As an aside, this does not mean we should be complete slobs! Precisely because we are in the image of God we should treat our body with respect, and eat well, and exercise well, and see ourselves as a temple for God.
What it does mean, then, is that there is, in fact, no "ideal" image. We think there is and we see "model" images of women and men in magazine and TV adverts all the time. But that is nothing to do with God - that is advertisers, giving us a false image of some sort of perfect person (as if, in any case, perfection is about looks: we know it is about what is inside - who we are, not what we look like!).
So, that sets the scene for answering your question. First of all, it is important to consider the motivation for the plastic surgery, and the key question is whether or not it is a medical cure. For example, the plastic surgery after a horrific set of burns to the skin is clearly justifiable on medical grounds: the person's quality of life would be much the poorer, and they would be much more likely to get serious infection, unless they have the surgery.
Another example might be someone who has a psychological illness rooted in the way that they look. This is a very difficult judgement: almost never, in fact, will it be about the way they look, but there will be some deeper cause, about self esteem, or a childhood memory, or some very negative image, and the idea that it is about looks alone goes away once the true cause of the problem is found. However, in the rare case where it really is about looks, then as a medical cure plastic surgery is acceptable.
However, if we speak frankly, we know that most plastic surgery is simply about vanity. The church does not agree with this at all, for two reasons:
Firstly, as I have said, our bodies are in God's image. If we accept that, then we can rejoice in what we look like, and we certainly do not need to change it.
Secondly, the Church has a key principle about all medicine - it is called the principle of proportionality. That is, the medical intervention (surgery, or prescribed medicine) should be proportional to the illness and to the medical resources available. If someone is having plastic surgery just for vanity then there is no illness as such, and so no medicine is justified. It is like taking paracetomol when you do not have a headache - it is, in fact, pointless. More than that, it is also wasteful. We are in a world where millions of people are dying all the time from diseases which are preventable. How can anyone justify wasting the time of doctors, wasting the medical resources, and wasting the money spent on plastic surgery for vanity, when that money, doctors' time, and medical resources could all have been used to save lives!
Surely the Church is right to be against plastic surgery simply for vanity. Let us be happy at the fact we are all made in God's image - whatever we look like!
Article Written: 8th May 2005
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