Have we now entered the era of the super obese?

After the news story regarding 70 stone Paul Mason, a man who meant doctors coined the term superobese it seems that we have now entered the era of extreme eating and consequent bariatric surgery.
His care costs taxpayers an approximated £100,000 a year, he needed a forklift to transport him and now he needs a £20,000 surgery to help save him from death. This seems like a one in a million storyline but the frightening truth is that this scenario is becoming more and more common in Britain. In a report carried out by Office of Health Economics commissioned by the Royal College of Surgeons in England it was stated that more than 140,000 people in England alone qualify for bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery first started out in America due tot eh huge impact that obesity was having on the nation. It was thought of due to the huge amounts of people that were failing to keep up with the diet and exercise regime set out by their doctors and other medical professionals. Bariatric surgery includes things such as gastric bands, intragastric balloons and gastric bypass all of which, although risky are very successful with a small death rate of only 1 in 300.
However despite this success of bariatric surgery, is it right that people are being allowed to bypass the natural way to lose weight in preference of the drastic surgery options? Could bariatric surgery become a way to reduce the number of obese patients without thought of the huge consequences it may have in the future?
It is thought that bariatric surgery could be wrong route for the NHS and NICE to take against obesity as many people are more in favour of the education schemes set out by the government to stand against obesity. These schemes are hoped to stop obesity and bad eating habits get out of hand.
Despite these concerns however, the number of people getting bariatric surgery in the UK is set to rise. At the moment it is said in a BMJ article that 'surgery isn't being led by clinical need' and thus the NICE is set to ask for more bariatric surgery to be carried out to reduce the pressure on the remainder of the NHS services. Even thought, Dr Haslam, a physician dealing with patients before and after surgery says that ' when bad service fail, it is the NHS who has to pick up the pieces.' Thus should more research be done into more patient and cost effective methods for obesity treatment, or should we stay firmly stuck in the era of surgery for the 'superobese.'