plastic surgery and today's 2nd reading

  • Thread starter Thread starter merne9
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

merne9

Guest
i am worried that breast implants are immoral and would be cause of sinning against my own body. first, i feel like it’s necessary to clarify. i am a happily married 28 year old. with 3 young kids. i have gone through physical changes of course after all the pregnancies. i had a tummy tuck to bring my abdominal muscles together and fix the skin after 3 c-sections. now, i’m making the decision to have my breast done. more than a simple plastic surgery it’s more reconstruction.
i have always been conservative in the way i dress and do not like bringing attention to my self. which is why it would be as natural as possible.
my husband is supportive either way since i go back and forth. but he would like me to be more confident in my appearance.
i want to know if despite how innocent my intentions are if it’s still bad.
thank you for reading
 
Plastic surgery, even a breast augmentation is not an evil in and of itself. Implants could be a very wonderful thing for someone who had a mastectomy. So let’s look at the three things it takes for something to be moral.

The Catechism indicates that every act consists of three moral elements:
objective act (what we do)
subjective goal (intention, why we do it)
concrete situations or cicrumstances (when, where, how, with whom, etc)

The objective act, to get plastic surgery, is not an evil.

The subjective goal: Here is where I think you need to look and only you can answer this. Why do you want a breast augmentation/surgery? Is it because you feel bad about yourself? While I think that there are other ways to feel better about yourself, I don’t think it’s wrong to want to feel good about yourself. I would never tell someone not to work out and get fit to feel better about their body. I would tell them that I love them the way they are, but that’s a different thing. Having surgery to feel good about yourself is not a bad thing(though we can get into the circumstances later as to how it could be a bad thing if you let other things that are more important slide.)

Now if you were doing it to make yourself sexy because you like other men (besides your husband) to look at you, then we’d have a problem here. So your intention is very important to understand if it is moral or not. If your intentions are in the right place, then the action is permissible.

Concrete situation: Here is where it also gets a bit more in depth. There is a difference in having breast surgery when you have the extra money, but if your children had to do without something they needed or you had to go in debt to pay for it; it could be a very bad thing. If you have plenty of money and you’re doing your best to help others, and this is not a huge expenditure for you… then it’s a different situation. (One could argue that the money could go to something else that would be better, and maybe so… but it is your money and only you can determine if you have been giving generously already.)

So all three of these have to be positive for it to be ok to do. You need to examine the concrete situation (can you afford it? is it going to hurt your family financially?) and your intention: why are you doing? Is it for a good reason?
 
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=327981&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2002&Author=&Keyword=plastic+surgery&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&record_bookmark=1&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ReplyDate+DESC&start_at=

yeah I think the biggest hold up is whether it is worth the money financially to do so, as well as the risk of undergoing surgery. There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good in and of itself, but the question is how far are we willingly to go in order to get that before we are guilty of pride or vanity?
 
Plastic surgery is one of those things that are sinful when you abuse them or do them for the wrong reasons. It is not sinful in and of itself.

You seem to have a pretty legitimate approach to it. If you’re TRULY worried about it, talk to your priest, but I’d say there is no sin.
 
Funny thing about your post. I read that second reading today, serving as lector, and then had a conversation with another woman in the sacristy along the exact same lines of your post.

As above, plastic surgery per se is not sinful, and the guidance that others have given here is wise. I myself have the battle scars of 3 very big babies on a very small frame and so can empathize.

A key is MOTIVE and as this motive needs to always to be in conformance with God’s will and to love Christ. In that reading, the key verse (to me) was “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own;you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Wanting to look good is not immoral, but the question is whether or not obtaining such cosmetic surgery is glorifying God.

For me, my husband is supportive of our decision to accept the evidence of the beautiful gift of our children on my body. We chose to not put my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, at risk because surgery is unnecessarily dangerous. We have the children who need a mom. And, as the other woman and I decided after Mass, the best advice is from St. Peter who said “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Yes, the pink bathing suit of our honeymoon is never going to make a comeback. And yes, it bothers me a bit But I’d rather the unfading beauty of the spirit and may it grace me long after my now healthy - albeit non-teenaged-body - succombs.
 
merne9 said:
i am worried that breast implants are immoral and would be cause of sinning against my own body. first, i feel like it’s necessary to clarify. i am a happily married 28 year old. with 3 young kids. i have gone through physical changes of course after all the pregnancies. i had a tummy tuck to bring my abdominal muscles together and fix the skin after 3 c-sections. now, i’m making the decision to have my breast done. more than a simple plastic surgery it’s more reconstruction.
i have always been conservative in the way i dress and do not like bringing attention to my self. which is why it would be as natural as possible.
my husband is supportive either way since i go back and forth. but he would like me to be more confident in my appearance.
i want to know if despite how innocent my intentions are if it’s still bad.
thank you for reading
Click to expand...
A priest I know once said regarding cosmetic adjustments that it should not interfere with your stewardship (i.e. giving to charity). He also said, that when we try to discern such things, try to follow St. Ignatius’ advice on discernment, and live with the mentality that you made the decision. How does it make you feel? It is possible that it would help if you had your medical consultation and even scheduled the appointment. Then you would be on the brink of having it done and you can see what your heart says to you.

Also, I agree that you may want to talk to a priest. And also pray. Best to you!! :o
 
I would have to ask WHY do you want to do this? We all want to look better, different, but does that mean we should go through surgery to do so? Should our confidence really come from our looks? I’m always surprised at the number of catholics who think it’s fine. I just don’t see it that way, but no priest or church ever told me that–it’s just my opinion. Also, I know a woman, very attractive, who once she started plastic surgery kept having more and more. She was never pretty enough and kept trying to fix one more thing. She was a christian.
 
Plastic surgery is not evil in itself and your purpose if for reconstruction/regeneration purposes and not for vanity by the sounds of it.
A lot of people get facelifts or breastlifts or dermal fillers etc to repair what has been damaged.
Its different when perfect or near perfect “celebrities” get it done as their motives may be less good such as vanity,wanting to be more beautiful then other women or wanting to look even more perfect etc but for the average everyday person the reasons are usually much more worthy.

To anyone that judges you for it-ask them why they would be ok with a person getting reparative plastic surgery to fix a face that had been burnt in a fire but they are not ok with with a person getting plastic surgery that face or body had been damaged through excessive stress,excessive sun damage,excessive changes due to pregnancy,imflammation,poor nutrition etc…?
All these things can affect collagen and elasticity and cause large sagging whether on the face or breasts etc.

Its a personal decision so please make sure you don’t confuse some peoples personal opinions of disdain/dislike for plastic surgery with it being a sin.
Please also be aware that there are Catholic cosmetic surgeons too so if it were a sin that wouldn’t exist.

If anyone says to you that your trying to change what God made then ask them do they shave their legs?
Or wear make up,dye their hair,pluck their eyebrows etc?
Because if they do any of these things for looks sake and not purely for hygiene purpose then they are in the same boat as people who get plastic surgery (for the right reasons) so they shouldn’t have disdain or judge etc.

On a practical level,apart from breast implants is a breast lift with fat transfer instead of implants an option in your “case”?

Wish you all the best with your decision:)
 
Elena, you just responded to a post that was from 2012. That’s three years old. It’s a dead thread.

Around here, we call responding to a dead thread “thread necromancy.” 🙂

Always check old threads for the date of the latest post. If the post is more than a month old, and you want to comment on it, you can always start a new thread. Heck, you can even link to the old thread! But don’t call up dead threads just to hear them “mutter and peep.” 🙂
 
Mintaka said:
Elena, you just responded to a post that was from 2012. That’s three years old. It’s a dead thread.

Around here, we call responding to a dead thread “thread necromancy.” 🙂

Always check old threads for the date of the latest post. If the post is more than a month old, and you want to comment on it, you can always start a new thread. Heck, you can even link to the old thread! But don’t call up dead threads just to hear them “mutter and peep.” 🙂
Click to expand...
Oh,thanks Mintaka!
I feel so stupid lol.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top