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Argentina Debates Ban On Plastic Surgery For Teens

Image is everywhere and everything in Buenos Aires
Image is everywhere and everything in Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina's parliament is set to debate a bill to ban plastic surgery for anyone under the age of 18, in response to reports of its increasing popularity among teens in one of the continent's more image-conscious countries.

The bill, initially presented in March, is ready for debate in the lower house of Parliament after approval by the Family, Childhood and Adolescence, and Health committees.

Pro-government legislator Mara Brawer, who authored the proposal, has said teens and their parents were increasingly opting for surgery "in response to cultural patterns being imposed by the market."

She recently told legislators "we want to protect teenagers from these pressures, which make them reject their own bodies," adding that parents were now especially concerned by teenaged girls' rejection of their bodies.

According to doctors, the greatest number of inquiries were about breast enlargement, cellulite-removing liposuction and nose jobs.

Critics have cautioned about the threat to parental authority, noting that very few teens have actually had breast implants, and in many cases doctors refuse to carry out such procedures on teenage girls.

Brawer has responded that "there is a limit to parental authority, because even with parental permission a minor cannot work 45 hours a week or watch X-rated films."

In cases of bonafide need, she said, citing for example, young people with so-called "Dumbo" ears, surgery would be allowed after "a psychologist's report that shows how the child is affected and a medical report confirming the completion of his or her growth phase."

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Society

Why Every New Parent Should Travel Alone Without Their Children

Argentine journalist Ignacio Pereyra travels to Italy alone to do some paperwork as his family stays behind. While he walks alone around Rome, he experiences mixed feelings: freedom, homesickness and nostalgia, and wonders what leads people to desire larger families.

Photo of a man sitting donw with his luggage at Athens' airport

Alone at Athens' international airport

Ignacio Pereyra

I realize it in the morning before leaving: I feel a certain level of excitement about traveling. It feels like enthusiasm, although it is confusing. I will go from Athens to Naples to see if I can finish the process for my Italian citizenship, which I started five years ago.

I started the process shortly after we left Buenos Aires, when my partner Irene and I had been married for two years and the idea of having children was on the vague but near horizon.

Now there are four of us and we have been living in Greece for more than two years. We arrived here in the middle of the pandemic, which left a mark on our lives, as in the lives of most of the people I know.

But now it is Sunday morning. I tell Lorenzo, my four-year-old son, that I am leaving for a few days: “No, no, Dad. You can’t go. Otherwise I’ll throw you into the sea.”

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