It’s time to end one of the most questionable practices in medicine: removing a healthy breast out of fear alone.

Sounds crazy, right?

Yet that’s what’s happening at an alarming rate. In fact, the number of breast cancer patients who are choosing to remove both breasts – even though there’s cancer in just one – has doubled over the past decade, according to a new study in the journal Cancer.

Hold on, you’re thinking. There must be some reason they’re doing this, right? Maybe some evidence that this will benefit survival?

“There’s not much evidence that contralateral prophylactic mastectomy will benefit survival,” Dr. Shawna Willey, a prominent Washington, D.C. breast cancer surgeon was quoted as saying.

So why are an increasing number of women going through with it?

“For a woman, it’s often a knee-jerk emotional reaction when they’re told they have breast cancer, especially if they’re told they need to have a mastectomy,” Dr. Willey said.

I wish more people in this industry would be as direct and forthcoming as Dr. Willey. Because if they were, we wouldn’t be seeing this kind of increase in a surgery that amounts to little more than doctor-sanctioned self-mutilation.

It’s akin to someone asking a doctor to remove a healthy lung in order to reduce the risk of lung cancer.

Sure, it’ll reduce the risk – but at what cost?

You can reduce the risk of plenty of things if you start hacking away at body parts. Afraid of bunions? Chop off some toes!

It’s simply not sound medicine – and it speaks to some pretty questionable ethics that so many surgeons are just playing along, maybe even quietly encouraging it.

I’d venture to guess that most of them are considering their bank accounts more than their patients’ charts. After all, these needless surgeries also happen to be pretty profitable.

Remember, these surgeries represent so much more than just the removal of a breast. They change a woman’s life, and can affect how she feels about herself and her body.

They also come with risks and complications of their own – and in some cases, those complications could end up undermining the treatment of the breast that really does have cancer.

Let’s get back to some basics when it comes to surgery, starting now. No procedure should be performed unless there’s a direct benefit – like increased survival or a better quality of life.

Anything less is bad medicine.