Citizen Columns

Citizen Columns >> Answer (January 20th, 2007)

Question

What is your religion's point of view on cosmetic surgery?

Answer

Setting aside the obvious health-related cases for cosmetic surgery (burn victims and cleft-palate for example), your question raises lots of other questions about the appropriate answer for any given person. In fact, Orthodox Christianity tends to approach such issues on a case-by-case basis, because it is impossible to prescribe a one-size-fits-all answer.

On first glance it might be appealing to reject cosmetic surgery and say "God made you that way." But cosmetic surgery is part of a long continuum of socially acceptable changes people make to their bodies, sometimes every day. Shaving beards (or legs), or other hair removal. Make-up. Jewelery. Hair styles, hair dying, hair-coverings. Teeth-whitening and orthodontic treatments. Even the clothes we wear to enhance (or hide) this or that feature of our bodies. All of this relates to what we think of the body we have, how we display it to others (or not), and what value we place on the judgments of others. At one extreme there is the totally natural look, and at the other is the cosmetic-surgery-addicted Michael Jackson.

For some parts of society cosmetic surgery will eventually become part of what's expected to fit in with what's regarded as normal self-care. But what does this say about those who have physical features that they can't, won't, or don't have the money to fix?

Will less wrinkles or a tighter neck really improve self-esteem or help a relationship? Perhaps yes, but the evidence is mixed. Or is the desire for cosmetic surgery just one more symptom of trying to escape reality? The life of faith is about ultimate realities - seen and unseen. We may or may not decide on cosmetic surgery, but we can all use work on the inner person, what an old friend once called "metaphysical surgery".

Father John Jillions