2016
What is the Church’s view on plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes?
March 2016


“What is the Church’s view on plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes?” New Era, March 2016, 41

What is the Church’s view on plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes?

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cosmetic surgery

Photo Illustration by Wavebreak Media/Thinkstock

The Church has no official position on cosmetic plastic surgery in general, but Church leaders have taught principles that can guide us in such matters. For instance, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said: “I plead with you young women to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. …

“… In too many cases too much is being done to the human body to meet … a fictional (to say nothing of superficial) standard. …

“In terms of preoccupation with self and a fixation on the physical, this is more than social insanity; it is spiritually destructive … . And if adults are preoccupied with appearance—tucking and nipping and implanting and remodeling everything that can be remodeled—those pressures and anxieties will certainly seep through to children. … One would truly need a great and spacious makeup kit to compete with beauty as portrayed in media all around us” (“To Young Women,” Ensign, Nov. 2005, 29–30).