Vanity Insanity

The most bizarre medical scam to emerge in a long time is the case of faulty breast implants made by French company,Poly Implants Protheses.

Written by Leher Kala
January 2, 2012 12:08 AM IST

3 min read

The most bizarre medical scam to emerge in a long time is the case of faulty breast implants made by French company,Poly Implants Protheses. It turns out that the company was cutting corners and making breast prosthetics from cheap industrial silicone,usually used in electronics. This would be funny in a grim sort of way if the implications werent so serious or widespread. These cheap implants have a higher chance of bursting and releasing dangerous quantities of toxic,poisonous silicone in the body,putting 30,000 women in France and 40,000 women in the UK at risk,besides an unknown number in the Netherlands,who also used implants from this company.

This is the sort of story one tends to expect only from India,where gruesome incidents of negligence in healthcare are routine: like the Kolkata hospital fire last month,and the heartbreaking case of infant deaths before that. In France,at least the health ministry is offering to refund part of the costs for removing the implants. Meanwhile,Jean-Claude Mas,72,the boss of Poly Implants Protheses,has an Interpol red corner notice out for him but seems far from making a clean breast of things (sorry,I couldnt resist). According to a news report dated 24th December 2011,he was last spotted hiding out in Costa Rica.

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Its almost impossible to have a very thin body with a very large chest,naturally. Only Barbie has that. We can hold a doll responsible for creating an impossible feminine ideal that quite possibly contributed to the invention of the Wonder Bra,an engineering masterpiece that magically creates a buxom look on the most flat- chested among us. While Im all for using science and advances in medicine to make us look and feel better,the Wonder Bra seems like a far easier,not to mention cheaper and less painful,solution to creating the full breasted look,if thats your thing. Personally,I find the perfection of the voluptuous hour glass figure,very eighties.

Its one thing going on a diet,or stuffing yourself into a corset or a Wonderbra to create the illusion of the perfect body,its entirely another to go under general anesthesia,risk inflammation and damaged nerves to flaunt the perfect body. In a frightening indication of how important appearances are,millions of women are willing to bear the pain of surgery; in 2010-11 breast augmentation surgery beat any other cosmetic procedure in the US,10 to 1. Is it worth it? Its personal. If youre in show business and it improves your career prospects,maybe. If its just a mid-life crisis and a final attempt to hang on to your youth,maybe not. (Research says women in their 30s are most likely to opt for breast enhancements.) The health issues that could arise from these faulty implants will bring back into focus the risks of unnecessary surgery and its unlikely breast implants will be as popular in 2012.

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