Is the “Foreskin Facial” Ethical?
A new beauty treatment dubbed the “foreskin facial” has been the subject of many breathless exposés in the past month. Popularized on social media by celebrities like Cate Blanchett and Kate Beckinsale, the one-time treatment costs around $650 and has been referred to as “the end of the world,” by news outlets like The Guardian.
But despite the controversial name, is the treatment really that outlandish? Yes and no. The product used is known as an EGF (epidermal growth factor) serum, which is derived from stem cells taken from the discarded foreskin of newborn babies — an excellent source of the human fibroblast cells that stimulate epidermal growth at a cellular level and increase collagen and elastin production. If the idea of applying “liquified foreskins” to your face disturbs you, fear not: according to Boston Magazine, due to advancements in cloning, it actually takes a very small amount of human tissue to grow the cells for decades.
EGF technology was first developed for use in medicine, and a Nobel Prize was awarded to Stanley Cohen in 1986 for discovering it. EGF treatments can heal burn victims and people with serious wounds more rapidly than anything else on the market; it speeds up the healing process by allowing the injured person to regenerate their own skin cells at a much quicker pace. In the beauty industry, EGF-based treatments and products are considered the next frontier of skincare technology. By your late 20s and early 30s, the cell growth process slows, resulting in thinner, damage-prone skin. The production of collagen and elastin slows as well, which encourages the formation of wrinkles. Applying a cream or serum that uses EGF technology will enable your cells to produce more collagen and elastin, increase blood flow, and speed up the growth process — effectively revitalizing your complexion.
If you’re a bit concerned why something developed to heal burn victims is being tapped for use on a few cursory wrinkles or sagging undereyes, you’re not alone. Is anti-aging an appropriate use for such a revolutionary technology? It feels a bit Brave New World — a product with surreal-sounding origins that allows the rich and famous to generate newer, younger faces with each application.
EGF facials are just another element of the larger beauty industrial complex. Women are told that the greatest thing they can be is beautiful — and then beauty becomes a target that must constantly be strived for and worked at diligently. Since our society correlates beauty with youth, these expensive anti-aging treatments become more and more popular and accepted. On a more metaphysical level, researchers at Hong Kong University have found that cosmetic procedures can be a way for people to symbolically stave off their fears about mortality and death — which ties back into our societal fear of aging and illness.
Improvements in technology are making these treatments and procedures more accessible and less expensive, but aging is an inevitable process that all humans will go through. So, while “foreskin facials” are being touted as a sign of the collapse of civilization, they’re really just a tiny symptom of a larger and more insidious element of our culture. Until we learn how to face our collective fears about aging and death, we will see more so-called cures like the EGF facial being promoted — but they are merely ephemeral solutions to a “problem” that doesn’t even exist.
