The claims have been repeated so often that many people believe them to be true. But are they? Fat people, especially women, have been told that their obesity will kill them and that bariatric surgery is their best option to save their lives. They’re assured, even by our most trusted health organizations, that the risks of bariatric surgery are far less than the risks from extreme obesity.

The incessant news about the deadliness of their fat have terrified countless people. The claims also help justify the federal government’s spending of more than $600 million annually “to fight obesity.”

But when it comes to bariatric surgery, these are lives at stake, mostly those of young women. In order for people to make a truly informed decision about whether to elect surgery, they deserve the most objective, credible data available, not death threats and statistical manipulations being made to sell them on these surgeries. A few simple facts can help to put their real risks into perspective. It’s an easy math problem: compare the risks of dying from the most “morbid obesity” to the risks of dying from the surgeries. Incredibly, no one has....