A $12k Surgery to Change Eye Color Is Surging in Popularity

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Scope of the Procedure

  • Several commenters find elective eye-color surgery alarming, especially given the risk to vision for a purely cosmetic outcome.
  • Some compare it to veneers, plastic surgery for abs, and other extreme cosmetic trends, expressing disbelief at what people will do to healthy body parts.

Public Healthcare, Risk, and Personal Responsibility

  • A major thread debates whether people who choose risky, purely cosmetic procedures should lose access to publicly funded care for future eye problems.
  • Supporters of denying coverage argue:
    • Public funds shouldn’t cover complications from vanity or elective risk.
    • Similar skepticism is extended to smokers, drug users, “extreme sports,” and other lifestyle risks.
    • Public healthcare is seen more like insurance with exclusions than pure compassion.
  • Opponents counter:
    • Government-funded care exists to reduce suffering, regardless of why illness occurs.
    • Almost all illness links in some way to personal choices; drawing lines is arbitrary and politicizable.
    • Denying lifelong care for an unrelated future condition (e.g., age-related cataracts after cosmetic surgery) is framed as punitive, ineffective, and ethically troubling.

Medicare, Welfare, and Policy Limits

  • There is a side debate on whether Medicare counts as “welfare” and whether benefits can justly be denied for “antisocial” but legal behavior.
  • Some argue taxpayers may properly exclude “undeserving” individuals; others note this becomes controversial when:
    • The past behavior is legal.
    • Widely socially accepted (e.g., tattoos).
    • Unrelated to the condition being treated.

Cosmetic Tourism and Broader Aesthetic Procedures

  • Commenters mention people traveling abroad (e.g., Turkey) for cosmetic surgeries like six-pack creation or liposuction.
  • Several highlight poor outcomes and complications that often end up treated in domestic hospitals, effectively socializing the costs of failed “bargain” procedures.

Eye Color, Ethnicity, and Aesthetics

  • A brief subthread explores whether mimicking Nordic traits (blond hair, blue eyes) has any cultural or “nordicism” implications.
  • Responses generally downplay this, emphasizing:
    • Light features exist in many regions.
    • Most people don’t see eye color as an ethnic or political issue.
  • Other comments touch on self-image: some dislike their eye color, others reframe it positively (e.g., “hazel-olive” vs “sewage-green”).