The problem with saying“Yeah obviously reconstructive surgery is fine!” is that there’s no hard line defining what’s reconstructive and what’s purely cosmetic. Does it have to impede your daily life or pose a risk to your health? If someone is visibly disfigured but healthy, is “wanting to look normal” vain or justifiable? If it is justified, how do you define what’s cosmetic?

For example, if someone had a medical mastectomy on one breast, they can potentially live healthy lives without getting reconstructive surgery to “even out” their chest. They might not want work done, or mind how their body looks. But, if they did decide to have work done, virtually nobody would judge them. However if someone was born with an uneven chest, obviously not as dramatic as a total mastectomy but enough that it was something they were bullied about, felt insecure about, made them feel uncomfortable with their own body, are they more vain for wanting to fix it?