Ethics in aesthetics

Aesthetic medicine often appears light - a promise of beauty, youth, and rejuvenation. Yet behind every request lies a deeper story: hidden suffering, social pressures, and ethical dilemmas rarely acknowledged.

Through twenty powerful chapters, each beginning with "when", Dr. Mohamed Boumaiza explores the gray zones where aesthetics meets identity, vulnerability, and survival. From patients living with HIV, deafness, or dwarfism, to sex workers, LGBTQ communities, athletes, and even physicians themselves, the book reveals how aesthetic practice reflects the invisible fractures of our societies.

More than a reflection on medicine, this is an invitation to look beyond appearances, to restore ethics at the heart of care, and to recognize that every aesthetic act is never just technical - it is profoundly human.

Mohamed Boumaiza is a physician at the Center for Dermatologic Surgery in Paris. With his clinical experience, he sheds light on the daily dilemmas of practitioners and offers an ethical perspective accessible to doctors, patients, and the general public alike.