Plastic surgery could be outlawed for under 18-year-olds unless medically necessary under a plan by a group of lawmakers from Germany’s ruling party, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The politicians argue that going under the knife for breast enlargement or nose operations should be off the cards for minors, the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said, citing a position paper.
Body piercings would still be allowed, it added.
Behind the bid are politicians dealing with health matters from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, the paper said.
They want the ban to be wrapped into new patient protection legislation due to be discussed by Merkel’s centre-right coalition in May, it added.
The MPs cite in the position paper the Organisation of German Plastic Surgeons as saying that 10 percent of all plastic surgeries are on people under the age of 20.
That figure, the organisation said Thursday, dated from 2004 and was for all plastic surgery operations including those that were medically required.
Around one percent of operations on minors in 2011 were for purely aesthetic reasons, it said.
“Even with a proper explanation it is not guaranteed that the young person is aware of the full implication of their decision,” the politicians argued in their paper.
They will also call for a multi-million-euro compensation fund to be set up for victims of botched operations, at a Friday gathering of party leaders to discuss policy, the newspaper said.
A spokeswoman for the conservatives’ parliamentary group declined to comment on the report.