Are Breast Implants "Absolutely Safe?"
In 2007, the dollars spent on breast augmentation surgery in the United States was $1.5 billion. By 2012, the numbers are projected to top 2 billion per year. Statistics from The American Society of Plastic Surgeons show that breast augmentation headed the list of surgical procedures in 2008. For those women who have had mastectomies, implants will be presented as a standard part of the recovery process.
Carol Ciancutti-Leyva, director of the documentary “Absolutely Safe,” is the daughter of a cancer survivor. Her mother’s journey, from a double mastectomy to silicone implants in the early 70s – which resulted in chronic illness, formed the impetus for the film.
The documentary came out in 2007, after a ten-year struggle for funding. It is currently being booked for screenings on college campuses and is being used in classrooms devoted to women’s studies, bioethics, and public policy.
Currently, Ciancutti-Leyva is working to create strategic partnerships to mobilize an “Informed Consent” campaign about the use of breast implant devices.
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"Absolutely Safe" is an absolute farce as a documentary. It's a strong POV film which ignores and dismisses international consensus about the risks associated with breast implants. There have been close to 2 dozen comprehensive reviews of the world literature on this subject performed by health ministries around the world which have all been consistant in their conclusions.
While I think there are certainly improvements that can be made in informed consent, this has to do more with reoperations rather then health issues.
The movie absolutely safe was so reassuring for me that my explantation was necessary. Today I feel much better and thanks to the movie know my symptoms were very real. -Mary Agramonte
One has to only take a closer look at "international consensus" to realize who has funded many of these studies (ex. companies who supply implants and their big dollars) and the studies themselves like the Mayo Clinic (which refuses to be interviewed) to see how questionable these studies are. People pop these implants in like they were gum drops without any knowledge at all of the risks involved.
The least that needs to be done is having informed consent along with the "FDA Breast Implant Consumer Handbook" where a patient can read about the risks involved.
What is a farce is the way our society is duped by large corporations and their profits they engender into thinking these operations are "absolutely safe"!
Absolutely Safe is a very powerful, honest look at the horrfiying concept of breast implants. The director clearly presents different viewpoints and follows one woman who wants implants put in and one who wants them taken out. The juxtaposition of these two journeys is quite powerful. The director bravely confronts a doctor who seems to not have the patient's best interests at heart. All in all a very powerful film that informed me in a much deeper way than most of the research on the subject.
Never will there be TRUE informed consent especially when it comes to breast implants. "Informed Consent BEGINS with INFORMED INDIVIDUALS" - this is our slogan here at Toxic Discovery! You think when you go in for breast implants they tell you everything that is going to happen to your body? As a former surgical nurse I will tell you that is NOT the case. Breast implants are a foreign device - in another 20 years society will view this procedure as barbaric! Something that was done to women as a human experiment. Women are spoon fed from the cradle to the grave what they should look like - isn't it time we understand 'YOU CAN'T FOOL MOTHER NATURE"?
Missouri is the 2nd State in the Nation to have an Informed Consent Law concerning breast implants which was passed into law in the year 2000. We continue to be the SHOW ME STATE when it comes to protection laws against women and children.
World Literature can just be JUNK SCIENCE if not researched and studied correctly - Over 2 million women live the lie's of of so called research - Want the TRUTH? The MDL and SF-DCT hold the medical records of thousands of women who are "suffering in silence" daily and who have proven medical records that document what the Manufacturers and Plastic Surgeons really don't want you to know. That breast implants rupture and breast implants can and do make you ill.
Want more information - Call Toxic Discovery - www.toxicdiscovery.com
Kathy L. Keithley-Johnston, R.N.
Executive Director/Founder/Injured Consumer