Giovanna Spantigati

A recent news on the newspapers has been long talked about.

Ophelia Kirwan is an English two year-old down's syndrome child; her well-off parents want to submit her to a plastic surgery to correct the "defects" of her face, which are the typical features of those affected by the down's syndrome. Ophelia's father is a plastic surgeon and his mother a woman who has often had plastic surgeries. I've heard different opinions and all motivated by good intentions.
Yet I feel there's something wrong with this plastic surgery. Each of us, men and above all women, wants to improve his appearance. Yet I'm still one of the few who does not use Botox, hyaluronic acid, cosmetic surgery and so on.

The reason why I resist, even though my friends and acquaintances look younger making me feel a bit envious, is because I accept me as I am and I think plastic surgery cannot change the way I see myself. Besides, going through invasive procedures can turn into megalomania taking people to forget that they cannot stop the aging process. It becomes an addiction, a drug. It's not different from being anorexic. You always think you are fat and think you are not perfect. Yet, improving your aspect is different from denying it. I think it's dangerous. It is certainly not making them split your face bones that changes the chromosomes. On the contrary, you teach your daughter not only that she isn't in the standards of beauty, but that if she changes the shape of her eyes she can pretend to be different from what she really is. That is, she can pretend not to be down. It means saying to her: "You are not ok, both outwardly and inwardly" It's awful. Ophelia is two years old and does not know yet what she wants to be like in the future. When she is of age she will decide what to do, but I'm afraid she will be largely influenced by her parents. I do hope that, by that time, they will be the first ones to have accepted their beautiful daughter.


Giovanna Spantigati