Civil liability of the plastic surgeon in aesthetic procedures: legal and bioethical issues

Abstract

This paper analyzes the civil liability of the plastic surgeon in aesthetic procedures, according not only to legal-obligational aspects, but also considering those involved in the doctor-patient relationship, like the duty to warn and the informed consent of the patient. In this way, within the current perspective of individual rights valorization – dignity and liberty, for instance – it is also necessary to recognize the conscious will of the patient (aware of risks, harms and benefits of medical intervention to the aesthetic change) that, under this point of view, should be understood within the Legal Theory of Mean Obligations. In short, the article considers the bioethical parameters against the contractual and consumerist ones, under which medicine seems to have been often treated.