For the individual patient the risk numbers look very different if they're the only medic at an Antarctic research station compared to say, a medium sized Australian town. I'm confident my risk of dying from acute appendicitis in a major city in an industrialised country with universal healthcare is negligible, but if I was in the middle of the Antarctic (actually I'd guess Amundsen-Scott has more than one medic, but not say the Russian base Vostok) and there is nobody qualified to operate? Not so much.

Also, the PR is very bad, and while ethically that's no reason for a medic to recommend this surgery to their patient it might be enough reason for a government to make it policy anyway.