On market share, ethics, and the exercise of public policy. Point of view

Make no mistake about it: our ethics drive public policy. The failure to understand this has contributed to the alarming proliferation of inquiries and legislation about surgery for appearance, those of us who provide it, and the facilities in which we work. Office-based surgery, surgery for appearance, and the qualifications of physicians who do both are currently under intense scrutiny by public agencies. We will examine why this is so, how we might respond, and how we can minimize the intensification of such efforts in the future. Although we will not be able to crawl off the stage of society's microscope, we may be able to get the makers of public policy to use a lower-power objective if we demonstrate more ethical scrutiny of our own.