[Ethical aspects of plastic surgery].

Abstract

In the past few years the abuse of ethical principles in plastic surgery has become increasingly noticeable. The reasons are various; it may be the desire to achieve personal recognition of plastic surgeons by means of different press articles or numerous yellow-press articles written by journalists whose only aim is to increase the circulation of their newspapers. In extreme cases the violation of medical secret or the surgeon's personality advertising is noticeable. Although this phenomenon is much more evident in the countries where plastic surgery is being performed at private clinics, it has in the past few years also become more obvious in our country. These ethical problems are present in plastic surgery because it is to often identified with aesthetic surgery. The fact that, with its more or less favorable results, it appears highly attractive to the public and thus get even the unwilling surgeon into the focus of various yellow-press articles and headlines. On the other hand, the very nature of the individual who specializes in this kind of surgery may be the principal basis for publicity. Such abuse of professional ethics is usually explained by claiming that the public should be properly informed, but in some cases it is but open advertising of the surgeon and his/her abilities. Establishing an ethical code which would entail all necessary moral sanctions in plastic surgery would act favorably to the protection of those plastic surgeons who perform their work according to the moral and ethical principles of their profession.