(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - In an increasingly body conscious society, cosmetic surgery is becoming a very popular option.
Over time, breast augmentation has become the most popular procedure. In 2006, almost 330,000 people had the surgery, a number that went up to 348,000 in 2007.
And a website is offering a unique way for people interested in the surgery to find financing for the procedure.
The name says it all, MyFreeImplants.com. The site targets men to solicit funding for women looking for the body of their dreams. Men sign up and pay to email and fund women seeking implants.
Newschannel 3 brought the website to the attention of Dr. Raghu Elluru, a plastic surgeon in Battle Creek, who said that he was astonished and very disappointed.
Newschannel 3 discovered that one gentleman in the UK has donated $30,000 in one month, which begs the question why perfect strangers would fork over that much money for something like this.
The founders of MyFreeImplants.com say that users are not allowed to give out personal information, if they do, the girls lose the funding.
Dr. Elluru says that whole idea of a site such as this causes him to question the ethics of any plastic surgeon who would approve. He said he would likely deny the procedure.
Dr. Elluru said that plastic surgeons are "not obligated to operate on anybody we don't feel is a good candidate for this surgery," and he believes that the majority of women who use the site would not be good candidates, because they would not take the surgery seriously.
"If someone is getting the money and it's not their money, I suspect they're not going to consider the issue the same way as someone who worked to get that five thousand dollars." Dr. Elluru said.
MyFreeImplants.com has funded about 205 surgeries so far.