Is it appropriate for a plastic surgeon to perform breast augmentation surgery on his 18-year-old daughter? While many people may balk at the idea, it's not as unseemly as it sounds. Dr. Michael Niccole, a board-certified plastic surgeon who recently performed breast augmentation on his own daughter, recently appeared with his daughters on ABC's The Doctors to talk about the issue.
On this episode's hosting panel, an OB/GYN and a pediatrician both say that they have performed minor and elective procedures on their own family members.
"One of the things that makes this story so controversial, as a mother of young daughters, is the whole idea of encouraging any sort of elective procedure on a young girl. You want them to diet and eat right and exercise and be healthy," says Liz Vaccariello, the editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest. While she's careful to add that this wasn't the case with Dr. Niccole and his daughter Brittani, Vaccariello says that the situation can appear alarming.
"You want them to like their bodies. Did the father encourage the daughter? I know that didn't happen but I think that's one of the headlines that people see."
Dr. Niccole says that his daughters have worked with him and his plastic surgery office over the last five years. "It's not like they're not familiar with these procedures." Brittani agrees. "I'm very familiar with all of the procedures that he does and I trust him 100 percent, more than 100 percent."
As an 18-year-old, Brittani has the ability to make an informed medical decision to have cosmetic surgery. In her case, the augmentation was to correct an asymmetry.
"I've operated on my own family members too," says Dr. Drew Ordon, a plastic surgeon and one of the show hosts. "This is elective surgery. We can separate ourselves from the person and we're looking at what we have to do. Why do we do it? Because we trust ourselves; we'd rather put the pressure on ourselves [because we] will hold ourselves accountable and not someone else."