Ethics And Ethics Of Plastic Surgery

All medical oath, be it the Hippocratic oath or the oath of Maimonides, share two principles; Beneficence and non-maleficence. Beneficence requires that medical practitioners act in the patient’s best interests. Non-maleficence ensures that medical practitioner never acts in a way that may harm a patient. Both of these principles give patients a promise of Professionalism. Rosamond Rhodes described the medical profession as, “a social artifact created by giving control over a set of knowledge, skills, powers and privileges exclusively to a select few who are entrusted to provide their services in response to the community’s needs and to use their distinctive tools for the good of patients and society”(Rhodes 75). By this definition, cosmetic surgery is unethical. Before diving into this argument, a comparison between reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery is needed. The goal of reconstructive surgery is to alleviate pain and suffering. One can also claim that the same is being achieved with cosmetic surgery, however, it must be critically noted that the suffering one complains about does not typically arise from the physicality of the body itself, but from the society interpretation of this body by a cosmetically paternalistic society.

The field of Bioethics has developed over the past thirty years as a product of

Although improving appearance through cosmetic surgery seems optimistic, risks and possible complications are associated with cosmetic surgery. Patients’ susceptibleness to these complications vary but are certainly issues that should be taken into consideration. Many patients don’t take into consideration the risks of cosmetic surgery.

wrong—our moral life in community. Bioethics is the application of ethics to the field of medicine and

Thesis: Plastic Surgery has been a problem in American society. People shouldn’t feel ashamed of their body, their looks, or be insecure about any body part because everyone is beautiful in their own way. Problems of plastic surgery include expenses, health issues, and medical malpractice.

Cosmetic surgery, a type of elective surgery undertaken to alter a person’s appearance for reasons beyond injury, illness, or disease, has become increasingly pervasive in society in the past few decades despite sparking controversial debates. (Coleman, 171) While reconstructive surgery is condoned, cosmetic surgery occupies a gray area where physicians “dedicated to saving lives, healing, and promoting health” perform “invasive surgical operations on healthy bodies for the sake of improving appearance.” (Miller, 353) Nevertheless, demand for it is higher than ever with people looking to surgery as an easy method for changing their appearances. This essay will argue that cosmetic surgery is indeed ethical for physicians to perform by examining it through the perspective of the four basic principles of medical ethics: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

As a matter of fact, biomedical ethics had always been concerned about the rights of life, our health, and many valuable things regarding our well-being. It helps us to distinguish what is

Beauchamp, Tom L., and James F. Childress. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Before the 21st century, the world's best scientists and researchers met in Paris to discuss the possibility of human augmentation. Plastic surgery and implants were becoming more common as the century was ending. The conference discussed the ethical and moral quandaries of human augmentation only being made available to wealthy, developed countries. It also discussed the “need” and “want” in human augmentation, and the potential for human augmentation over the next century. After the discussions, The Code of Ethics on Human Augmentation was showed to the

Thesis: The cosmetic, issues, and beauty. We need to understand every possible outcome while considering plastic surgery

Plastic Surgery is a controversial topic nowadays. Some men and women believe that plastic surgery is a great chance to have finally the body, face, and even romantic life always dreamed about. In the U.S. the plastic surgery television shows have made these ideas more popular and common than ever. Some men and women have other reasons for want plastic surgery Such as people who want plastic surgery have disfigurements to the face or body because of birth defects or genetic problems. The rise in plastic surgery in U.S. is a bad sign for future. Plastic surgery is not always a good thing for everyone. Cosmetic surgery should be prohibited for teenagers and people having psychological problems.

Ethics, in medicine, is described as applying one’s morals and values to healthcare decisions (Fremgen 2012). It requires a critical-thinking approach that examines important considerations such as fairness for all patients, the impact of the decision on society and the future repercussions of the decision (Fremgen 2012). According to Fremgen (2012), bioethics concerns ethical issues discussed in the perspective of advanced medical technology. Goldman and Schafer (2012) state bioethical issues that arise in medical practice include antibiotics, dialysis, transplantation, intensive care units, issues of genetics, reproductive choices and termination of care. In clinical practice the most common issues revolve around informed consent, termination of life-sustaining treatments, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, and conflicts of interest (Goldman, Schafer 2012).

We live in a society where people worship beauty. As far as recorded history people have gone to extremes to seek beauty. From foot binding in China to wearing strangulating corsets in Victorian era. People from different race and culture have experimented in every way possible way to look beautiful prior to this popular age of plastic surgery. It’s very common to hear people complain about their appearance, whether it’s their crocked nose, thin lips or flat chest. Remarkably, plastic surgery has been the solution for people who complain. Most people tend to think of plastic surgery as only cosmetic surgery and not as reconstructive surgeries. Plastic surgeries seems to be an invention of modern technology; however its roots lie in the ancient history of India. An Indian surgeon contributed towards the establishment of plastic surgery, it was intended to correct physical deformities acquired during birth, accident, disease or war. These surgeries did not gain the popularity it has today until the First World War. It was during the late 60’s, when doctors started realizing the endless possibilities of plastic surgeries. With the help of this surgery a trained surgeon can replace an amputate body part, remove skin cancer, get rid of unattractive scars and visible birthmarks or rescaling a nose or enhance body parts. Today more and more people from different age groups opt for plastic surgeries to obtain dramatic physical changes. These surgeries were envisioned to restore

To sum up, plastic surgery is aimed to make humanity look better. Thousands of people have these operations performed each year. However,

MedicineNet analyzes mental health risks as a result of unrealistic expectations of surgery. When a person engages in plastic surgery on the wrong grounds, they tend to be unsatisfied with their results. This causes stress and sometimes depression on the patient, which can also affect their physical health, due to delayed and/or prolonged healing time. It is critical for plastic surgeons to be specifically trained in psycho-therapy. During an initial consultation, the doctor must first determine whether the patient is emotionally stable. They look for things such as age, development, mental illness, whether the patient is realistic towards the outcome, whether the patient has recently undergone any sort of traumatic event, or any other factor capable affecting their mental health. Once this is assessed and the patient is cleared for surgery a whole new array of problems arise.