Human Nature

Cosmetic Leg-Breaking

Eight years ago, when [Hajnal] Ban was 23, she decided she was too short. How short? Around 5 feet 1 inch. So Ban changed her body. She went to Russia, where, as the Times of London put it, doctors agreed to “break both her legs in four places and stretch them slowly for 1mm every day for nine months.” Then she wore plaster casts for three more months. Result: Ban gained 3 inches. She entered politics, and today, she’s a city councilwoman.

How far should we let cosmetic surgery go? How much trauma and risk should we let people endure for the sake of looking the way we want them to look, especially when they might otherwise learn to accept themselves as they are?

More here .