Seeking beauty, cutting costs: why so many Americans go under the knife abroad

UnrestrictedThis thesis is a collection of three newsmagazine-style journalistic articles that investigate the trend of American cosmetic surgery consumers traveling abroad for discounted operations. What follows is the product of dozens of interviews, months of research and a trip to Tijuana, Mexico to interview cosmetic surgeons and their patients.; Section one follows Becki Bozard, 49, a Portland social worker who lost a great deal of weight following a U.S. bariatric procedure and then traveled to Vitoria, Brazil to have excess torso tissue removed.; Section two explores the economic and cultural factors that contribute to the medical tourism trend, as well as the various risk factors it creates.; Section three takes the reader firsthand into the offices of Mexican cosmetic surgeons who operate on a growing patient base of U.S. citizens.; Taken as a whole, the three articles attempt to paint a broad picture of cosmetic tourism and its implications for the future of consumer-driven medical care