
Breaking your legs to make yourself taller.  - peter123
http://www.slate.com/id/2221843
======
jerf
What a Puritan. "Hey! She thinks she'd be happier if she was taller? How can I
stop that legal adult from making a decision I disapprove of?"

What's the compelling basis for us collectively to stop her?

~~~
pj
How about the burden on an already overwhelmed medical system because doctors
are focusing on nonhealth related distractions.

~~~
jerf
The "already-overwhelmed" medical system in Russia? Paid for out of pocket (I
assume, the article doesn't say but I have never heard of an insurance that
would pay for _that_ )?

(Besides, the laws of economics tend to ensure that supply will match demand
when the market is left alone. If we weren't working so hard to disconnect all
the market forces that go into causing that Econ 101 result, maybe our system
would be less "overwhelmed". The food I purchased today did not take food out
of your mouth; the medical services this woman purchased don't have to take
medical services from you.)

~~~
pj
The supply may match demand if the supply of doctors weren't limited by the
AMA. And I wasn't speaking only of Russia, I was speaking _in general_ and
especially about the U.S.

I'm not arguing that we should stop the practice, just offering some
legitimate reasons to limit this kind of practice.

It is true though, that if more doctors are performing non-health related
procedures, there are fewer doctors to do health related issues.

The question is: How much should doctors be doing to make people better than
normal, or intentionally abnormal versus doing things to make people _not_
abnormal?

Plastic surgeons are already limited in what they can do. This article for
instance:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/mar/11/health.lifeand...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/mar/11/health.lifeandhealth)
which talks about wings, horns, tails and the like, "If the medical-ethics
board allowed it..."

~~~
jerf
"It is true though, that if more doctors are performing non-health related
procedures, there are fewer doctors to do health related issues."

No, that's only true instantaneously. It's not true across a time span where
the number of doctors can adjust to market conditions.

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aarongough
I think the whole argument against this kind of procedure revolves around the
fact that operations such as this are complicated, painful, dangerous and
expensive.

Once cosmetic surgery is so advanced that it is simple, fast, reliable and
painless will people have any issue with it?

I'd be interested to hear opinions... Would you have a cosmetic procedure done
if it was not a big deal?

The next step after commonplace cosmetic procedures is routine performance
enhancement! Boron carbide skeleton, here I come!

~~~
pchristensen
This TED talk about performance enhancing prosthetic legs (including making
you taller) covers a lot of these issues:

[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html)

~~~
aarongough
Great link! Very thoughtful talk...

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teilo
Gattaca, anyone?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca>

~~~
quickpost
Awesome movie. I literally just watched it today and it was totally inspiring.

If anyone needs a break, you can watch the whole thing here (Parts 1-10):
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6zvCmQAHQc&feature=chann...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6zvCmQAHQc&feature=channel)

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ironkeith
I believe that Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) also travelled to Russia to have one of
his legs lengthened (he previously suffered from some pretty severe back
problems). So there are reason for lengthening legs beyond wanting to be
taller.

<http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=149273>

~~~
ShabbyDoo
I wonder why he felt the need to go to Russia. There are many competent
physicians in the US doing Ilizarov procedures.

~~~
pj
it's cheaper. just like off-shoring IT. Lots of patients needing complicated
or expensive medical procedures go to India, China, Thailand, etc...

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paragraft
Wow. A friend of mine had an Ilizarov frame for some 5 years at least (born
with a shorter leg on one side, they were aiming for 4 inches I think)
starting at age 10 or 11, and after seeing what an absolute mission that was
for him, I'm staggered at the idea that someone would undergo that procedure
for cosmetic reasons. It's seriously non-trivial surgery: installation was 13
hours, and he became far more familiar with various painkillers than any kid
that age deserves to.

------
ShabbyDoo
This likely was the method employed:

<http://www.ilizarov.org.uk/content.htm>

I have talked to wearers of such cages. Not fun, but they are a great
alternative to amputation.

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mattmaroon
As a shorter person myself, that is amazing to me. I've heard of that surgery
and am baffled that anyone would go through that. (Also, I'm fairly sure
athletes don't go through that because it leaves your leg bones too weak.)

I mean, being short is generally not a good thing, except when you're in coach
on an airplane and have ample legroom. But it's not bad enough that I'd
willfully even break a toe to correct it.

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_pius
If only she'd heard of high heels and platform shoes before the surgery ...

------
noelchurchill
This operation sounds horrible!

~~~
geoka
It looks horrible too. A family member has undergone a similar one in Russia,
although in her case it was a necessity (she could not walk a mile without her
feet starting hurting). They break your bones and install fixtures with metal
rods driven through your feet/ankles/shins. Then they use these fixtures to
control the way your bone fragments knit back together over a period of
several months.

It is hard to imagine that someone would put herself through this for pure
cosmetic reasons.

~~~
kragen
Many intelligent people spend many hours every week of their lives and many
dollars doing things for purely cosmetic reasons: putting on makeup, picking
out clothes, buying clothes, painting interior walls, waxing and detailing
their cars, taking photographs of things because they're beautiful (rather
than because they need to remember something about them), painting on
canvases, performing plastic surgery, getting tattoos, tattooing other people,
piercing ears, brushing and cutting and styling hair, listening to and playing
music, dyeing fabric...

Although in the case where the canvas is oneself, you can raise the objection
of narcissism or selfishness, I think these pursuits are fundamentally
worthwhile and even noble.

~~~
geoka
It wasn't a question of time and dollars, it was a question of pain and
discomfort. What I meant, going through all that pain and discomfort for being
a few inches taller - that's what I found hard to understand.

~~~
kragen
I don't know about you, but I often prefer being in pain to spending money or
wasting time.

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jrandom
Wake me when they can give me surgery to make me smarter.

