The cult of eternal youth and beauty on the one hand, and on the other, the increasing prevalence of women with breast cancer, is bringing a growing need for silicone implants.

Implants are not everlasting and it is even worse, if it comes to manufacturer fraud linked to the poor quality of these medical devices. The French company PIP placed 400,000 implants of questionable quality on the market, containing industrial-use silicone instead of one medically approved.

Data from England, Germany, France and Spain shows that around 100,000 operations were performed using it. Unfortunately for women and girls, this means a significant risk of infection and the need for replacement.

This is why we presented a resolution in the European Parliament on the basis of which the European Commission will draw up stricter legislation on medical devices. Great attention will also be paid to hip implants in the new legislation. It is necessary to create a register of patients with implants in the European Union and monitor them. People need to be able to access data, which shows the different variations in their quality.

It is essential that the updated legislation, encouraged by Parliament due to the PIP company’s fraud, will increase monitoring in terms of preventing similar unethical acts. The resolution calls for clear rules of criminal and civil liability. We urge all Member States to combine their incident reports in a centralized database that will enable control.

We live in times where a cult of eternal youth and artificial beauty governs society. Society has the opportunity to be an example and raise awareness, especially for young people, that beauty comes from within and from good relationships, creativity and helping others, rather than from silicon.