More parents of children who are short but otherwise healthy are turning to human growth hormone to give their children a leg up, literally. Dr. Nancy Snyderman talks with a panel of experts about where to draw the line on medical solutions for being short.

TSC: Notice the music playing during the opening credits of this clip. This is supposed to be a serious topic, and yet they decided to play music in the background which almost makes the topic seem like one big joke.

But, having said that, I will concede that the actual substance of the video was pretty interesting and informative. These pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyist convinced the FDA to change its guidelines in the year 2000 so that they could market HGH to the parent’s of children who are perfectly healthy. The cosmetic use of HGH has skyrocketed since then and has become a billion dollar industry. This doesn’t bode well for the future. The solution here is to change our society to make us more tolerant of a wide range of heights - not to medically alter our children in a bid to make them taller. That merely shifts the perception of “tall” and “short”. But it doesn’t change heightism. If anything, the widespread use of these drugs may make heightism much worse.

We may be entering a time in the very near future where short stature is considered a disease unto itself. It seems that we make progress on one type of social ill and then lose progress on another front. It wasn’t long ago that homosexuality was considered a medical disease. That changed for good reason. But now, it seems that short stature may soon be considered a pathogen as well.