Bay 12 Games Forum

Champs can be quite nice, yes. Especially with the right modules (photon lance [ultimate station sniping doomcritter], nanosub/insanity inducer [fleetships buggeroff], spawners [enclave +1], doom accelerators [starships buggeroff]) or if you're willing to micromanage enough to leverage the abilities for your fleet. The shield can be very useful, and the rest of the stuff is pretty nice, too. Even before they hit battleship, but especially after. Champions are ultimately just a very powerful, very mobile starship with some impressive tricks and a very versatile (and, given luck with unlocks, very powerful) weapon load out. They're worthwhile for that alone, heh.

There's no glaring exception to the law, here. There's basic contract law and that's pretty much it. A valid legal agreement was signed by both parties, and then one later on is trying to invalidate the contract. Which isn't working, and shouldn't. That the contents of the contract included cosmetic surgery is basically irrelevant, since the surgery in question isn't illegal.

As for why the surgery isn't illegal, well, that's a considerably larger discussion but most of it boils down to parents being given a lot of leeway when it comes to stuff that isn't outright systematic abuse. And a one-off procedure that's commonly and legally performed isn't that.

And no, parents couldn't do whatever cosmetic surgeries they wanted to do to their kids, but there's more than a few they can easily get by doctors if they wish, of which circumcision happens to be one. If you want to say they shouldn't be able to, well, that's fine, I wouldn't exactly disagree, but that's not how things are. And honestly, they're not likely to change any time soon. It's very difficult to regulate that sort of thing without limiting parental control to an extent the change is a political non-stater.

Breast enlargement surgery

At least from what little research I have done.

Among other things. Insofar as cosmetic surgery goes, what I've picked up with very minimal searching is that, breast reduction surgery (for males, in particular), and both ear and nose surgery, at the least. I can only imagine there's other shenanigans involved in regards to that kind of thing.

It's just... one of those things. I'm not sure about other countries, but in the states kids (especially younger ones) really have very, very little in the way of legal rights. They've got some protections (against abuse and neglect, mostly, for all the damned good that does some days), but not too much in the way of stuff regarding consent and whatnot. If their parents want them to have a nose job, they're probably going to end up with a nose job. They're not really considered human enough to disagree, yet.

Really, Bauglir pretty much hit the nail on the head regarding this thing. A someone made a rather stupid contract and now they're stuck with it.

I'm pretty sure children need to consent to cosmetic surgery (although this might not include reconstructive surgery).  You don't have an unlimited right to do whatever you want to your children.

Some quick searching seems to say they get to consent if they're considered legally competent... which has a general rule of thumb point of being around age 14. Not 3. Otherwise it's just convincing a doctor it's in the kid's best interest. And if you've got the money to have a voluntary procedure done, you've probably got the money to hire a lawyer able to make sure they're convinced.

Yeeaaahh... I rather imagine that would entail accepting that the other party has some degree of legitimate claim to the land, which... isn't something you see happen in contested land claims.

The meat's not meat, the cheese isn't cheese, next you'll be telling me the taco shells themselves are, in fact, some sort of aluminum knockoff and not actually made from organic matter at all. I can only guess the vegetables are particularly edible bits of plastic. That would fit Taco Bell's MO pretty well, apparently.

I have been vigorously avoiding thinking of those monstrosities for over a decade. No, I will not think of the dancing terrorchildren. That valley is more uncanny than the dark cleft that spawned the beasts.

That would definitely make things more atmospheric. Please do.

So long as the PR gets spun well enough, anyway. It can be pretty damned expensive if it gets the public to turn on you.

But yeah, companies have formulas for determining the cost of safety measures vs lawsuits/injuries/deaths, and all too many just go with whichever is going to cost less. Even if it's the latter instead of the former.