Legal Aspects of Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery

The tendency to beauty is an intrinsic and natural desire and quest of every human-being. According to the history, surgery to improve one’s looks existed in Alexandria and in ancient Rome. Considering the developments and expansions made in the meaning of ''Disease'', the psychiatrists and knowledgeable people at that time, started to declare that the person’s physical defects were a reflection of an inner mental disorder , thus physical features which did not meet a certain degree of perfection were seen as a kind of disease and consequently cosmetic surgical operations aimed at reflecting inner beauty, in this case, mental beauty were seen as the only kind of treatment of this disease.  The main doubts regarding the legality of cosmetic surgeries were removed by considering the aim of the treatment of these kinds of surgeries and also the contemporary theories in authorization of surgeries aimed at improving one’s looks, so that cosmetic surgeries now are considered legal and lawful. Although in most legal systems as well as in Islamic countries, the nature of medical obligations is the obligation to the means, however in some special cases, the nature of medical obligations is the obligation to the results. In the Iranian's legal system, the nature of surgeons’ obligations has been introduced as the obligation to the results which seems reasonable and logical. So in this article, with a brief description of the history of the subject and the views of proponents and opponents, the nature of surgeons obligations it's been tried to comparatively study. An analytical investigation of the nature of the obligations of the surgeons has been dealt with in some controversial, common and related instances, i.e cosmetic and/or plastic surgery.