This is a reference to a Michael Warner book, but it’s also a really great question in general: how does concern about looking normal affect how we force people to conform, even surgically?  An interesting reflection on this in Slate:

which is the problem, the birthmark or the bad attitude? Something needs to be done, but is it surgery? Is every child entitled to “look normal”? Or is he entitled to respect regardless of how he looks?

As it happens, surgery for the kid who was called ugly is a no-brainer. That’s because his disfigurement had functional effects, enlarging his tongue so he couldn’t speak intelligibly. Dr. Waner and others who take on such cases pro bono are doing noble work. But the quest for normality can extend to iffier cases. The Times describes a baby at the conference who “has a circular, purple mark on her forehead about the size of a nickel.” Such defects, known as hemangiomas, “often disappear or shrink in 10 to 12 years, but they can have a social and psychological impact—on children in particular, who must live with the stigma of looking different.” Is that a good reason for surgery?