Cosmetic surgery on the NHS - should it be allowed?

Yep.

You aren't in a position to decide what someone else's quality of life is. Private healthcare is massively expensive and extortionately so. Seeing a shrink would cost more in both time and money.

And it's not 'on the NHS', it's from the taxes one pays

Someone I know has just had cosmetic surgery on the NHS. It's not normally allowed except to correct health issues, but she claimed it was making her depressed about herself and they allowed her to have it (she had a chin reduction).

On one hand, it was clearly something she was insecure about and she's definitely more confident now after she's undergone the surgery.

However it is using money from taxpayers, which could be spent on treatment for a patient with a life-threatening illness.

And more philosophically, is this sending the wrong message? She's adopted the attitude that she's 'beaten everyone who ever called her ugly' because she's pretty now, but this could easily be seen as her giving in to the media's idea of beauty, i.e. sending the message 'your life sucked because you were ugly, but now you fit the media's standards of beauty more, your life will get better'.

What do you think? And if you had something about your physical features seen as extremely unattractive in today's society, would you consider plastic surgery? If it was avaliable on the NHS would you take it or would you go private?

TL;DR: What are your views on purely cosmetic surgery given to people on the NHS?

So how do you feel about the NHS fitting someone with an artificial knacker....

Bloody disgrace, I reckon. Total waste of money.

Oh yes I am. It doesn't take a medical degree from Harvard to see that 'having boobs to small' or 'having a nose slightly too large' isn't a disfigurement and isn't worth of treatment when there are massive genuine plastics waiting lists and a lack of funding.

If you think you're ugly, then YOU can do something about it. If that means paying for a shrink to console you or paying for the treatment privately so be it.

EDIT: Oh, so you're saying the money for these operations comes from the taxes directly and that the pot of money the NHS receives comes via Unicorn delivery from Neptune? Hah, stop being so pathetic. End of.

I know its a little bit sad that I actually care but I'd rather people didn't think I was wasted nhs money on something I didn't deserve..


people do decide whether peoples quality of life is affected enough though and he said thats the career hes going into so he might not be in a position to decide now but he will be soon. Also the taxes one pays become the nhs money its not your payment for whatever you want the same as you can't waste police as much police time and money on whatever you want even though thats paid for by taxes why would the health service be any different.

But things like liposuction, 'chin reduction' nose jobs, breast enhancements etc. are purely to enhance 'beauty' and have no medical or real benefit other than to conform to beauty standards and actually can leave scarring or develop infections and become detrimental to health, therefore costing the NHS more, just so that a person can have a 'smaller nose' or something stupid.

The bit in bold is very very worrying. My distinction was that what you see as someone else's want, they might see it perfectly validly as a need. I pay my taxes so I can get the medical treatment I need lol. It's called the health service for a reason!!!

yeah you get the medical treatment that you need not that you want. you can get things that affect your health not your vanity its called the health service for a reason. If you think no one is capable of assessing whether something with have a mental health benifit to someone or not and you can just decide "hey I need x" then that is worrying. Nobody needs any cosmetic surgery, at all I didn't need the scar reduction I received a burns victim doesn't need the treatment they get and someone who wants double d's doesn't need that. the question is will these peoples lifes be improved enough by it to justify spending money on it rather than something else. I think your confusing taxes and buying a product. The NHS is essentially a system of rationed health care and you don't get to choose what you get the people in charge or rationing to make sure that everyone can get a fair share do. I think your confusing taxes with paying for a product or service, there not the same thing.

Spoken like someone who's never had the piss taken out of them for how they look day in day out

The person who is saying it is effecting their quality of life should be the main assessor, or healthcare professionals with the same problems as them.

The money is an economic question not a moral one, so I won't address that here.

ive had the piss taken out of me for my looks, i could easily go crying to the doctor and get it all fixed but i dont, i agree with the person you quoted

lol, don't be so angry. You may as well debate with a brick wall if that is the sort of response any challenge to your convoluted ideas merits.

The bit in bold is very very worrying. My distinction was that what you see as someone else's want, they might see it perfectly validly as a need. I pay my taxes so I can get the medical treatment I need lol. It's called the health service for a reason!!!

Who are you

It's that kind of attitude that shows me it's pointless debating with you. I don't know what you pay in taxes but I'm willing to bet mere pennies of that will find it's way to your local PCT. And surgery costs alot more than that.

If you want treatment you otherwise don't need, then pay for it. Try going to a private clinic and see if the fiver of your taxes that ends up in the NHS will buy you a nose/eye/ear/tummy job etc.

ive had the piss taken out of me for my looks, i could easily go crying to the doctor and get it all fixed but i dont, i agree with the person you quoted

No sh!t Sherlock! A doctor! Yer avin a laff...

Many seriously ugly people get really insecure. If they have a partner they never let them out of their sight. No matter how low grade that partner is. But they always lose them in the end.

noone should ever be the main assessor when it comes to themselves noone can be completely objective and unbias when it comes to themselves.
It might be an economic question not a moral one but the economics of it it why people need to be assessed to see if they really will benefit enough to justify the cost in the first place the economics of it all is very important. In a hypothetical scenario where the NHS had unlimited resources then yes people should be able to get whatever treatment they want but it doesn't so it has to be decided how to ration it.