Surely, a backlash against the artificial beauties will erupt. Not a chance, Dr. Teitelbaum said. Surgical work, when well done, is now subtle. ''Most people aren't getting those bad face lifts anymore, where the eyes, lips and cheeks are distorted,'' he said. ''If everyone getting plastic surgery looked like that, there would be a backlash.'' The aesthetically altered future would surely flummox Darwin. One New York surgeon, Dr. Michelle Copeland, suggested that cosmetically altered couplings could create some surprises. Say a man with a big nose and receding chin has a nose job and a chin implant. With his new profile he manages to marry a beautiful woman, who, by the by, had already had her ears pinned back, her sleepy-looking eyes lifted and her thin lips augmented. Their child might well be a surprise package with the big nose, the Dumbo ears, receding chin, saggy lids and thin lips.
