No, this politician is not in the United States. Gustavo Rojas, who is campaigning to be an alternate in Venezuela's General Assembly is raffling off a boob job at $6 a ticket as a fundraising tool. He claims it's no different than raffling off a TV set.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) would disagree. This society (which I am a proud member of) has ruled that offering plastic surgery services as part of a promotion or raffle is unethical, since it trivializes the serious nature of plastic surgery and may influence people to undergo surgery they may not want or be a good candidate for. I can see the rationale behind this ethical rule, but don't necessarily agree with it.
That being said, there are radio stations which have raffled off free breast augmentations as their "Breast Christmas Ever" promotions using questionable non-ASPS surgeons. Is it really a "prize" to have one of these surgeons operate on you? Sounds more like a punishment to me!
Thanks for reading.
Anthony Youn, M.D.
