Last year, a husband-and-wife team of doctors was sued when a patient complained that he could no longer sexually satisfy his partner; this client underwent a penile insertion procedure. Now, it?s Vicki Belo?s turn to be sued. The complainant underwent a non-surgical procedure called Thermage to smooth out her wrinkles but got a deformed face, ugly scars and dark marks instead. Who?s to blame, really? Doctors like Belo who advertise and market procedures that titillate the vanity in each of us? Or is it the fault of the patient for not paying attention to the clich? that ?If it ain?t broke, don?t fix it??

Right, medicine isn?t just about saving lives or enhancing the quality of life anymore. Side by side with developments in science, medicine has redefined what enhancing the quality of life means to include procedures to satisfy vanity. Breast augmentations, penile insertions, collagen and botox injections, tummy tucks, face lifts, breast lifts?none of which has anything to do with treating an illness or saving lives?are performed by doctors.

It is even more curious how doctors have diverted from the intended uses of certain medical procedures to make them more profitable. Where collagen used to be for treatment of burn victims, it is now a ?treatment? to remove wrinkles. Botox, derived from Botulinum toxin, the most toxic protein known, is injected to paralyze facial muscles and make wrinkles less noticeable.

And newer procedures are developed every day. More money is being spent in research because it has become an undeniable fact that vanity translates to billions, if not trillions. Businesses and entire industries are floundering right and left but the cosmetic industry seems untouched. People will pay to look good. If girdles, make-up and night creams can?t do the trick anymore, they are willing to pay doctors to alleviate their suffering for having lost their youthful looks and sexual prowess.

That is what it really all boils down to?men and women who cannot face the truth about ageing, and savvy doctors and pharmaceutical companies who play up their paralyzing fear of growing old. So, we have men whose erection last no longer than two minutes all screaming for Viagra and penile insertions. And we have women with thick waistlines, sagging breasts and wrinkle-lined faces lining up for liposuction, tummy tucks, breast lifts and collagen and botox injections.

Why not? With doctors prescribing the medications and performing the procedures, what can be safer? There?s that belief?that faith?that anything going wrong is one chance in a million if qualified doctors rather than hacks perform the cosmetic procedure. With a sick patient especially one on the verge of death, that faith is relevant. But for a patient who simply wants to defy nature by seeking to remove twenty years off his or her looks, it?s quite another thing. And never mind the pain, the discomfort and the expense. Only the results matter.

And there?s the rub right there. What happens when the results turn out to be different from what the doctor promised and what the patient expected? What happens when side effects develop? Last year, it was a man who did manage longer erections at the price of painful sexual intercourse. This time, a woman who did get rid of her wrinkles at the expense of developing scars and dark marks on her face. And it?s just too tempting to say if they had just let nature take its course, and accepted the fact that being middle-aged is not the same as being a teenager, they would have been happier.

But, of course, that?s not very profitable for cosmetic dermatologists and surgeons. So, they insist that there is a psychological angle to all this?that making men and women more attractive is in fact a way to enhance their lives because it boosts their self-confidence and self-image. Does it? Or does it merely temporarily bury their insecurities and make them dependent on drugs and cosmetic surgery?

My grade school teachers couldn?t have foreseen all this when they said that doctors treated sick patients and saved lives. That was what we were told when discussions wandered to what we wanted to be when we grew up. Very idealistic, indeed, but very much sanitized, too. Just like their definitions of other professions?lawyers defended the innocent so they wouldn?t land in prison, architects and engineers built houses and buildings, and teachers molded the minds of the youth.

Innocence of an entire generation?

My daughters have gone though career talks in their school and I wonder if they have been told that lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers and teachers do other things too. I wonder if they?ve been told that lawyers also circumvent weak and vague laws to get guilty clients off the hook. Sometimes, they even go into the law-making business and write laws that benefit themselves, their businesses, their colleagues and their businesses. I wonder if they?ve been told that many school owners were once bright-eyed teachers but who opted to get into the business side of education, putting up schools with whimsical curricula that help justify horrendous tuition. I wonder if there?s been any mention of the role of architects and engineers in the horror story called the Manila Film Center. And I wonder how the medical profession is explained nowadays with so many med school graduates opting for non-life saving specializations like cosmetic dermatology and surgery because that?s where the money is.

The author blogs at http://houseonahill.net, http://pinoycook.net and http://www.sassylawyer.com