In plastic surgery, ‘informed consent’ is simply an illusion of control

THE sad death of a Limerick woman during cosmetic surgery in the United States made my mobile phone work overtime, this past week, as journalists worked on follow-up stories. The questions came thick and fast.

In plastic surgery, ‘informed consent’ is simply an illusion of control

Did I know Dr Sachs, the surgeon involved? No. Had I been on a Late Late Show with him? No. Had I had anything done by him? No.

With every "no," I felt a mixture of guilt and relief. Guilt because I could be of such little use to the individual journalists. Relief because, several years ago, when I published a book about my own extremely positive experiences with plastic surgery, I had left out the names of all the surgeons involved. Even though some of them were doing wonderful work and I wanted to recommend everybody I knew to go to them, I also knew that if I endorsed a named surgeon, it would return to haunt me.

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