Anyways. Just another anecdote on the pile.
I’d bet your father is not used to the pollen in his region. Doubt it because of his tonsils.
Despite having had repeated tonsillitis as a kid (and bronchitis at the same time - unheated boarding school with abysmal hygiene and dozens of boys to a room is quite the disease incubator), my mother, a nurse, dug her heels in, and said no. She'd had to deal first-hand with the outcomes of botched tonsillectomies a few times too many.
They did my brother seven years later without their permission - and he suffers from severe allergies to this day. I have none.
I’ve always been extremely sceptical of “its vestigial” or “that body part is bad for you”. I mean, surely if either were true, selection would have done away with it. If having tonsils were a dysgenic trait, nobody would have them.
I can tell you why it remains such persistent practice - it’s a quick and easy surgery in most cases, and it’s billable at a decent rate in most places. A surgeon in the UK can do ten or more in a day, at £3k a pop. You have an endless supply of patients, and parents who’ll consent because after all they had theirs done when they were kids.
Play your cards right and you’ll make millions a year.
In the UK, in the late 80s or 90s? I'm not saying it didn't happen, but HOW?! Did your family attempt to complain or sue?
It's strongly recommended against in the UK now. We do less than 1 operation per 1000 population.
> A surgeon in the UK can do ten or more in a day, at £3k a pop.
That's not how English surgeons are paid, is it?
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tonsillitis/
> It's very rare that someone needs to have their tonsils taken out. This is usually only the case if you have severe tonsillitis that keeps coming back.
So the idea that consultants were getting £3K for individual private operations in the 1980s seems unlikely - and as far as I know that's definitely not how they are paid for NHS work.
That's not necessarily true - if something is vestigial it is no longer affected by positive selection pressures; it won't be selected against until it is harmful. [0]