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Is Plastic Surgery Kosher? |
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Written by Rabbi Eli Mansur
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 Q: Is it permissible to undergo elective surgery, such as cosmetic surgical procedures, nose adjustments, or the removal of embarrassing facial features?
Rabbi Eli Mansur: Undergoing elective surgery potentially involves two prohibitions. Firstly, Halacha forbids causing oneself bodily harm unnecessarily. Therefore, although one certainly may undergo surgery that he requires for his medical well-being, allowing a surgeon to operate on one's body unnecessarily, purely for the sake of improving appearance, would seemingly be forbidden. Secondly, general anesthesia is looked upon as a situation of danger, and we might therefore forbid willingly subjecting oneself to general anesthesia unless this is necessary for his health. Chacham Ovadia Yosef (in Yabia Omer) allows undergoing elective surgery where this is direly necessary. For example, if a single woman fears she will be unable to find a suitable match unless she undergoes the procedure, she may have the operation. This would apply as well to a married woman if she suffers humiliation or difficulties involving Shalom Bayit (domestic harmony) due to her features. In all these cases, the anguish the woman endures by her current condition exceeds the harm she would suffer as a result of the procedure, and therefore the prohibition of Chabala (causing oneself harm) does not apply. And as for the risks involved in general anesthesia, Chacham Ovadia writes that these procedures are generally brief and do not require deep anesthesia, and thus little or no risk is entailed. In all other circumstances, however, Halacha would forbid undergoing elective surgery. If a woman wishes to have cosmetic surgery purely for the sake of improving her appearance, she should be discouraged from doing so for both Halachic reasons, as explained, and due to the broader, "Hashkafic" (ideological) problems involved in preoccupation with vanity and modern societal fads. It should also be noted that Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, in his work "Tzitz Eliezer," disagrees with Chacham Ovadia's ruling, and forbids all elective surgery, even in the cases described above. He contends that if the Almighty formed a person in a certain way and gave him a certain appearance, he is not entitled to change it by undergoing a medical procedure. Although we follow Chacham Ovadia's ruling, allowing elective surgery under certain circumstances, as discussed, a person considering elective surgery must very honestly assess his motivations for doing so, to ensure that he is driven by a genuine need, and not by a preoccupation in vanity. Summary: One may not undergo elective surgery unless it is direly necessary, such as to find a spouse, save one's marriage, or avoid humiliation. |
Comments
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I agree.
Yeah- Dark hair is beautiful, why go blounde? the blound high lights Totally don't go with the black beauty- that's for hair fashion. so even if u are doing it for the beauty- girl- it wont look nice. lol
Posted by jewishfashiondesigner, on Sunday, 26 November 2006 at 6:21
Wait!!! I KNOW THE GIRL IN THAT PICTURE!!!!!
I thought her nose was real. :(
Posted by Hamid, on Friday, 17 November 2006 at 10:11
I have to agree with the rabbi and Almaz. I find it seriosly UNattractive when women go about doing cosmetic surgery of any kind. Granted thier may be special instances where they have such low self confidence it's a must for them to even be comfortable; but in general I think its sad to change ones appearence perminently in order to feel more attractive in modern society.
Personally, my biggest turn OFF is breast implants, which fortunately are not too prominent in Persian Jews however still sadly as acceptable as driving a BMW here in LA. I for one would rather have a natural, self confident woman, who will let me appreciate her for what she has and be happy and content; while knowing it's her man who should be the one she is beautiful for and not society in general.
Posted by Yehudah Younessian, on Friday, 03 November 2006 at 11:16
If you are doing this because you are correcting something that is wrong I feel that as someone in the medical profession that is ok. But if you are fine and you are doing it for Vanity's sake then that is completely wrong. It is sad that we live in a society that want women to look a certain way a woman on the top and a man on the bottom. Especially in LA I see women with Big Fake Breast and big white teeth that look like Chicklets gum. Fake hair and liposuctioned to death. But a lot of times their Husbands and significant others leave them ANYWAY for younger women because no matter HOW much surgery you do to stay young looking your body knows how old you are. and if you put a woman who is 56 but looks 36 next to a woman that is REALLY 36 you will know the difference. The thing is as a society we need to stop focusing on outward beauty and working on our souls toward inward beauty. It is VERY sad with the raise in the use of Pornography peoples minds are jaded into what REAL beauty is supposed to be and it is NOT Pamela Anderson or Paris Hilton. These are Caricitures of the highest degree. And anyone who falls for that is stupid and misguided.
And listen I have seen people get lots of surgery and when they have chldren the children looked like THEM BEFORE surgery so just because you get all this work done don't think that it is somehow going to passed through osmosis to your child. So in LA I have seen a bunch of pretty Blonde women with Homely children that are growing up with Complexes because they don't look like Botoxed, nip and tucked mom and dad.
And it REALLY sickens me when I see beautiful dark Persian girls dyeing their lovely locks blonde and doning blue contact lenses trying to look like something out of a comic strip. Thinking that this is going to catch a suitable mate or that they THINK that they will look better. Actually it looks stupid to say the least. Again the nose is REALLY big and ugly ok go what you must. But again there is a limit to everything
Posted by Almaz, on Monday, 23 October 2006 at 1:40
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