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Med Humanities 2000;26:43-48 doi:10.1136/mh.26.1.43

Changes to bodily appearance: the aesthetics of deliberate intervention

  1. Søren Holm
  1. University of Manchester, Manchester

      Abstract

      Aesthetic plastic surgery is a branch of medicine using surgical techniques to alter the appearance of patients. In this paper it is considered whether aesthetic plastic surgery should be viewed as an art form. The question is answered by trying to see how aesthetic plastic surgery fits a number of classical concepts in philosophical aesthetics, concepts such as “artist” and “work of art”. Further to elucidate the status of aesthetic plastic surgery, it is compared with competitive bodybuilding, another technique for changing appearance.

      Footnotes

      • Søren Holm is Reader in Bioethics at the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester and Professor at the Centre for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo, Norway

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