LOSE THE LEDGE, GAIN THE WEDGE:

Texas surgeon televises his own liposuction surgery, seeking to promote use of adult stem cells (AP, 8/27/04)

An overweight plastic surgeon performed liposuction on himself on camera to promote the potential use of stem cells that can be harvested in such operations.

Dr. Robert Ersek, 66, who conducted the operation with the help of liposuction's French inventor, said he would encourage patients to save their liposuctioned fat from now on. Dr. Yves Gerard Illouz, who was in town for a plastic surgery seminar and who at one point during Ersek's operation advised him on his technique, agreed.

"This will be the future," Illouz said of stem cells. He said that in five years, adult stem cells derived from tissue, such as fat, and other organs will be successful in fighting disease and injuries. Illouz performed the first liposuction in 1977.

Adult stem cells are different from embryonic stem cells, which are controversial and involve the destruction of fertilized human eggs.

So how do Democrats win an issue where they say peoiple have to die for their cells and the GOP tells women that their liposuction is a selfless act?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 3, 2004 4:19 PM