THE DARK SIDE OF COSMETIC

SURGERY IN THAILAND

NAME& ID NUMBER FATIN NADIAH BINTI SAYPOL ANWAR(2015856536)

SYAFIQAH BINTI IBRAHIM(2015857246)
GROUP AS1163A1

LECTURER’S NAME MUHD IZZAT BIN RAHIM

 Cosmetic surgery is any medical operation that is intended to improve a person’s appearance

rather than their health. Although it is known to be very popular among women, nowadays there are

also quite popular among men who wanted a change on their body. Author of this article, Jonathan

Head is a reporter of BBC SE Asia Correspondent, for Bangkok in 2012. Head was educated at Dulwich

College, a part-boarding independent school in the town of Dulwich in South London, between the years

of 1974-1978, followed by Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge where he studied B.A. in

History and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where he studied

an M.A. in South East Asian Area Studies. He reports on the dark side of Thailand’s growing medical

tourism industry on March 17 2015.

In this article, a British woman named Joy Williams went into SP Clinic in Bangkok last October to

undergo a cosmetic operation but unfortunately ended up dead. In 2010, Helena Grace decided to do

a cosmetic surgery on her nose. What she did not expect was her nose had been different from the

promised one. She also realised that she had difficulty breathing through one nostril. The objective of

this article is, to identify the dark side of cosmetic surgery at Thailand. Next is, to persuade that there

are many problems for those who is involved in cosmetic surgery at Thailand. One of the many problems

is that the doctor does not have any legal licensed to perform surgery and the fact that the government

have little control over this.

According to Head (2015), Joy Williams who went for surgery at a very reasonable price had died

under anaesthetic because her infections had been infected as the doctor tried to correct what had

been done wrong. It also turned out that the clinic was not licensed although it is a modern facility and

widely used and praised by the patients from overseas. This results in the doctor being charged and

the clinic has been shut down. The reason Thailand has the cheapest cost compared to the other

countries is mainly because they did not have a license. Not having a license means they pay less for

insurance. The condition of the hospital also effects the patients to be attracted especially for the

tourists. It looks like it is legal but actually it is not. Foreigners without thoroughly checking have fall into

the trap.
 It is a bit difficult for hospitals in Thailand to be sued for medical malpractice, and rare for courts

to give them any punishments, Head (2015) said. The laws governing medical practice in Thailand

are undeveloped with very few publications that lawyers, judges, and doctors might use for guidance.

Patients also struggle to access their medical reports, which makes it hard to prove in court what had

happened. This in turn explains why courts in Thailand does not make a big fuss out of this.

Should patients steer clear of Thailand, asked Head (2015). Patients do not have to stay away

from doing cosmetic or any types of surgery in Thailand as long as they did sufficient research on the

place and make sure that the place is guaranteed and certified. It is definitely not a problem if the

place is licensed because if anything goes wrong at least the patient is protected with insurance.

Doing some research would not waste one’s time as once the surgery is done, there is no turning

back.

Generally, in this world everybody wants to be beautiful. That is absolutely no doubt. To some

extent, some of them are willing to do almost anything including sacrificing such a large sum of money

to get an utmost perfection result. However, there are pro and cons for everything. Some people will

feel more confident and look prettier than before but some will regret it or have further surgery to correct

something they don’t like. That is the reason why one should consider the pro and cons and reasons

as to why they are doing cosmetic surgery but we as humans should be grateful for what had been

given by God. All of us are special in our own unique ways. We do not have to change in order to be a

certain someone. As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Reference

Head, J. (2015). The dark side of cosmetic surgery in Thailand. BBC News. Retrieved

August 8, 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31433890