Stomach-stapling for kids

Just found this gem of an article in the Guardian about how the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE, of all things) is going to

recommend that severely overweight teenagers for whom other treatments have failed should be offered surgery, including ’stomach stapling’, as a last resort to prevent them from developing diabetes, cancer and serious heart conditions. But the decision to give the go-ahead to the £8,000 procedures will be greeted with dismay by NHS officials and hospital bosses, as the health service, which is cutting jobs and restricting access to clinics, struggles to contain its £800m deficit.

Say what? Of all the things to be concerned about in the idea of offering bariatric surgery to children, why is the cost the thing which raises the most concern? This is especially disturbing in light of the recent coverage of a 12-year-old girl’s liposuction, which both she and everyone involved, as far as I can tell, deemed a success. The thought of children being offered stomach stapling, gastric bypass and liposuction on a massive scale is more than unsettling - it’s terrifying. It’s bad enough that adults are being pressured to have their bodies surgically altered so they can lose weight, and now people want to offer this option to children - whose bodies change so rapidly, and who are already at an emotionally fragile time? Scary stuff.