Face-Off: Fact or Fiction?

Look at all those gorgeous bodies running through campus in various states of undress, sweat glistening and legs pumping. While the fixation with the body is a noble pastime, there seems to be an added obsession to aesthetics these days. And what better way to accomplish the ideal look than by means of a facelift or collagen injection. Except that to me cosmetic surgery seems the easy, cheaters way out after letting the beautiful body slide. But how far will we let this cosmetic craze go?\nUpon coming to America at the beginning of the semester, I could not complain about the exquisite contours that the guys running bare-chested shared with the rest of the students on campus. Many an athletic lass would also be spotted devoting running time to their bodies, participating in the Campus Jog to refine and define their shapely legs and buttocks. Very impressive work, I'll admit. The remainder of us would be laden under an Eastpack, our daily exercise of shipping knowledge-filled text books to and from the facilities. \nHere there's a lot of effort planted into attaining the desired body -- a pleasant variation to the Netherlands, where the Dutch students' daily exercise involves less oxygen exchange and more beer consumption. Of course it is well known that looking after one's body (and not consuming copious amounts of beer) is better for your health and reflected in how you look. Go the natural way: train and watch the calorie intake. Less fat, more muscle and a tighter derriere to mention some of the benefits. \nBut contradictory to fitness and a healthy diet is cosmetic surgery. These artificial means to attaining the perfect set of pecs or pumping the breasts up a notch is clearly a popular procedure. Last year over 6.5 million women had cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, which was 87 percent of all operations performed, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. \nLast week I saw some shocking news from a top plastic surgeon in London. Peter Butler, a plastic surgeon consultant at London's Royal Free Hospital, said that surgical techniques would be so technically advanced that in the next six to nine months, it will be possible to perform a face transplant (www.news.bbc.co.uk). Yikes, fiction becomes fact in the fashion of "Face-Off," the Hollywood movie with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.\nCertainly the current debate of whether to go ahead with this astounding technology in order to alleviate the pain of facial disfigurement is valid. The debate will rage for victims whose features are acutely scarred by accidents. It will be deliberated if society finds it tolerable to allow a person to walk through life with someone else's face on. What I consider chilling are the future uses this technology could bring. Could you imagine what would happen if this facial reconstruction would fall into the hands of a troupe of discontented, moneyed housewives? Instead of a Botox session -- complete the face transplant, and voila! No wrinkles and no sags.\nIt is evident that society has the propensity to fall under the allure of the Narcissus spectacle -- the mythic Greek who fell in love with his own reflection. If not exclusively used for facial reconstruction of scarred patients, this advanced technology seems to me one preposterous extension of "fixing" the less desirable body traits one is born with. Indeed how far will we allow this cosmetics-fix-it fad to go?