Even the air we breathe could be taxed!

Based on the appropriate EU standards, the European court of justice decided "that medical services which do not consist of medical treatment to people following the diagnosis, an illness or any other infringement of physical health, are liable to sales tax." Senior finance directors in Germany agreed accordingly to define salaries for plastic surgery - in other words: beauty surgery - as liable to sales tax.

Germany's legal system must bow to the European legal system. Does the European legal system then not have to submit to the legal system of the United Nations? 40 years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO), official organ of the UNO, defined the terms of health, according to which "health is not only the absence of illness and invalidity but a state of complete physical, psychological and social welfare”. Unfortunately the third aspect of this trilogy will remain utopian for a long time.

The European Court of Justice's resolution according to which night shifts must be considered and paid as part of the working hours as well as adequately compensated with rest periods was not taken over by the German legal system - outbalanced by state economic interests. Who is going to pay for that? A new tax that would force some among the medical profession to financial blood-letting could very well please the finance minister. One plastic surgeon - probably a test case - was already asked by his tax office in Germany to pay retrospective sales taxes for all plastic surgery services over the last ten years. Who is doing a "rip-off" here?

UEMS - The EU-committee for medical specialists still defines our profession as follows: "Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery is a speciality concerned with acute and non-acute conditions which may be congenital or acquired as a result of trauma, disease, degeneration or ageing in patients of both sexes and all ages. Its aim is the restoration or improvement of function and the normalisation of appearance and well-being." Compare also the article "Der Europäische Plastische Chirurg" ("The European Plastic Surgeon") by the co-editor of this edition Prof. Dr. Alfred Berger.

Aesthetic surgery (cosmetic beauty surgery) must be conducted by highly specialised doctors with extended education in general and plastic surgery. The operations demand thorough preparation and careful realisation. Excluding this implementation from the medical profession by court order, will open the floodgates for "black sheep". Those "black sheep" already pose a threat to inquiring patients because they follow their mercantile aims of those without professional training, experience and ethics. Our patients should not have to go abroad, should they?


Cataracts, bypass, facelift

Prolongation of human life is one of the main targets of medicine. Ageing is a natural process. Is a removal of the signs of that process unnatural? Eye operations to remove cataracts as well as bypass operations on the heart are part of this intervention. Not only facelift or eyelid stretching remove the signs of ageing.

The unique specialist textbook by Prof. Dr. Lemperle "Ästhetische Chirurgie" ("Aesthetic Surgery") lists two subchapters within the chapter "Psychologie in der ästhetischen Chirurgie" ("Psychology in aesthetic surgery") called "Seelische Leiden - die einzige Indikation in der Ästhetischen Chirurgie" ("Psychological Pain - the only Indication in Aesthetic Surgery") and "Plastische Chirurgie als ‚Psychotherapie' mit dem Skalpell" ("Plastic Surgery as ‚Psychotherapy' with a scalpel")

Based on almost 45,000 responses from patients after aesthetic operations, we can present the following results:

- 40% show higher self-esteem and can concentrate better at work
- 22% had increasing success at work
- 20% felt socially more accepted
- 30% entered new emotional relationships
- 19 % entered new sexual relationships
- 20% had more rendez-vous
- 9% had sexual contact more frequently

No negative changes were observed.

Examples taken from a specialist book are sometimes more convincing than numbers. One female patient got rid of her hay fever after a nose correction operation, another female patient was freed of her asthma after breast correction surgery. Yet another patient used to get sweaty hands whenever she was introduced to new people. After an aesthetic operation on the face this phenomenon disappeared. This shows some of the far-reaching psychosomatic effects after beauty surgery. Judges should be aware of this before excluding aesthetic surgery from the medical profession, leaving it to some nonmedical practitioners or "biomechanics".


Beauty Tax

If the tax spiral continues its upward path we could pay attention to Dean Swift's proposal: "Beauty should be taxed and every beautiful woman should fix her own tax level. Such a tax would be paid willingly and achieve the best results."

After an aesthetic operation patients could raise their beauty tax level by self-denunciation. The same criteria could in return apply to a ranking of beauty surgeons.

 

Seriously, though, "Beauty will save the world", says Dostoijevski. Should we ourselves block the only chance left for this world by beauty taxation? - If this world is still to be saved at all.


Oxygen Tax

The human body's lung capacity varies and is measured by spirometrics. 3,5-7 liter of air enter the lungs each time we breath in. Our air (still) contains 21% oxygen. This will soon become less. Should we expect a tax on the air we inhale? Top athletes, former swimmers as well as rowers would be billed extraordinarlily. Their lung capacity reaches 7 liters.