Can Medicine Be Aesthetic

Disentangling Beauty and Health in Elective Surgeries

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2288458
AutoresAlexander Edmonds (0009-0002-6730-6023, Department of Anthropology and Sociology University of Amsterdam, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume27
Fascículo2
Páginas233-252
Data de publicação2013-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoMedical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/maq.12025
PMID23784970
OpenAlexW1789922213
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas21
Referências citadas39

This article analyzes tensions between aesthetics and health in medicine. The blurring of distinctions between reconstructive and cosmetic procedures, and the linking of plastic surgery with other medical treatments, have added to the legitimacy of an emerging "aesthetic medicine." As cosmetic surgeries become linked to other medical procedures with perceived greater medical necessity, health and aesthetics become entangled. One consequence is that medical needs are magnified while perceptions of the risks of surgery are minimized. Drawing on ethnographic work on plastic surgery, as well as other studies of obstetrics and cosmetic surgery, I illustrate this entanglement of health and aesthetics within the field of women's reproductive health care in Brazil. I argue that while it would be difficult to wholly disentangle aesthetics and health, analysis of how risk-benefit calculations are made in clinical practice offers a useful critical strategy for illuminating ethical problems posed by aesthetic medicine

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Ethnography · Field (mathematics · Health care · Legitimacy · Perception · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Issues · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Technologies