NSW: Industry may be turned into a "meat market": academic

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-1999
NSW: Industry may be turned into a "meat market": academic

By Anthony Stavrinos

SYDNEY, April 12 AAP - The medical industry may be turned into a "meat market" by plastic
surgeons driven by commercial rather than ethical interests, a Sydney academic told an inquiry
today.

Dr Anne Ring, a consultant and lecturing sociologist, made the comments at a New South
Wales ministerial inquiry into cosmetic surgery.

The inquiry was prompted by concerns from various medical bodies in the state over the way
cosmetic procedures were promoted, as well as their safety and quality.

"The cosmetic surgery magazines demonstrate how cosmetic surgeons have jumped on to the
commercial bandwagon," Dr Ring told the inquiry.

"They might be seen as being the frontrunners in a possible future direction for medicine
as a meat market."

Dr Ring said the inquiry would also stimulate wider discussion on how far society was
willing to allow medical practitioners to compromise ethics for profits.

"This inquiry into cosmetic surgery can also be seen as stimulating the wider question of
how far we as a society - and our doctors as a profession - want medicine to go down the
competitive pathway towards the future in which medical ethics risk getting short shrift," she
said.

Meanwhile, Australian Cosmetic Surgery Magazine (ACSM) editor in chief of Michelle Kearney
said the publication had started last year due to the need for more information by prospective
patients.

She said before ACSM had come into existence the only articles available on the subject
were in general interest women's magazines and usually written by journalists with no medical
experience.

Ms Kearney said the stories were often sensationalised and published as one-off cover
stories.

"There was a need for non-sensational, authoritative medical information .... we decided to
approach doctors to write articles about areas of their expertise," Ms Kearney said.

"If these same doctors wish to advertise in the magazine because they consider it a
suitable environment, so be it."

AAP as/bd/sb/bm/br

KEYWORD: COSMETIC

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