Ethical Considerations In Aesthetic Medicine

This article discusses the arguments as to why the field of medicine should not unreflectively link and ingratiate itself to the beauty industry. If aesthetic medicine is purely oriented towards economic concerns, it runs the risk of creating a demand that would not exist without its own advertising. There is also the danger that a fiscal approach to aesthetic medicine will embrace the ideologies of our consumption- and performance-oriented society with the primary goal of profiting from it. Over time, this could lead to a situation in which aesthetic medicine will be completely eradicated as a discipline that is the domain of physicians. The logical conclusion put forth by this article is a call for our field to invest much more in its own moral authority and credibility; this can only be ensured when all of the representatives of aesthetic medicine see themselves as helpers, not as salespeople.