Cosmetic Surgery as a Consuming Relationship

Abstract

Capitalist society determines the creation of needs expressed in the access to new goods and services that are far from subsistence consumption, which promotes the purchase of symbolic products providing experiences that deploy satisfaction other than rational consumption. The proliferation of plastic surgery deserves a special analysis, since in 2016, Colombia was the third Latin American country –only preceded by Brazil and Mexico, respectively– where more cosmetic surgical procedures were performed, to the point of being promoted as a destination for 'scalpel tourism' in an institutional manner. This paper aims to characterize cosmetic surgery as a consuming product, within the framework of an interpretation in accordance with the pro-consumer’s principle, with the legal consequences of such a position. To this end,
the legal relationship between the cosmetic surgeon and his or her patient will be analyzed, in order to verify whether this is within the framework of the consumer’s status, and finally, the practical consequences of including the obligations of this contract within the consumer’s law will be identified, in order to elucidate the medical responsibility for damages caused to a patient by this type of procedure.