Aesthetic/Cosmetic Surgery and Ethical Challenges
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REVIEW
Aesthetic/Cosmetic Surgery and Ethical Challenges Bishara S. Atiyeh Æ Michel T. Rubeiz Æ Shady N. Hayek
Received: 24 April 2008 / Accepted: 16 June 2008 / Published online: 27 September 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC and International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 2008
Abstract Is aesthetic surgery a business guided by market structures aimed primarily at material gain and profit or a surgical intervention intended to benefit patients and an integral part of the health-care system? Is it a frivolous subspecialty or does it provide a real and much needed service to a wide range of patients? At present, cosmetic surgery is passing through an identity crisis as well as an acute ethical dilemma. A closer look from an ethical viewpoint makes clear that the doctor who offers aesthetic interventions faces many serious ethical problems which have to do with the identity of the surgeon as a healer. Aesthetic surgery that works only according to market categories runs the risk of losing the view for the real need of patients and will be nothing else than a part of a beauty industry which has the only aim to sell something, not to help people. Such an aesthetic surgery is losing sight of real values and makes profit from the ideology of a society that serves only vanity, youthfulness, and personal success. Unfortunately, some colleagues brag that they chose the plastic surgery specialty just to become rich aesthetic surgeons, using marketing tactics to promote their practice. This is, at present, the image we project. As rightly proposed, going back a little to Hippocrates, to the basics of This article is being reprinted for ISAPS 50th Anniversary Special Issue. B. S. Atiyeh Mediterranean Council for Burns and Fire Disasters – MBC, Palermo, Italy B. S. Atiyeh (&) M. T. Rubeiz Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon e-mail: [email protected] S. N. Hayek Department of Surgery, University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
being a physician, is urgently warranted! Being a physician is all that a ‘‘cosmetic’’ surgeon should be. In the long run, how one skillfully and ethically practices the art of plastic surgery will always speak louder than any words. Keywords Aesthetic surgery Cosmetic surgery Marketing Medical ethics
Introduction One of the basic characteristics of humans, dating from our earliest knowledge of history to the present time, is their desire and ability to change, alter, and, in most cases, improve almost everything in their surroundings as well as themselves [1]. Practices designed to enhance appearance go back at least to the time of the Pharaohs and have always been determined by the culture of the period [2]. ‘‘Plastic surgery’’ is a general term that describes surgery performed to correct a problem caused by trauma, disease, or other surgery, or to create a more pleasing appearance for whatever reason. ‘‘Cosmetic surgery’’ operations and other procedures can be defined as interve
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