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Abstract The Netherlands awoke with a shock to some highly publicized cases of clients suffering second-degree burns from inadequate use of laser technology for hair removal in the beauty salon. Aestheticians are increasingly offering risky and sometimes irreversible skin-enhancing treatments. Because of the complexity and hazards of the beauty profession and its proximity at times to the domain of health care, it merits attention from bioethicists. This article presents an overview of ethical issues arising within the everyday practice of the beauty salon, based on discussions with aestheticians and a survey, and reports on the development of the world's first national ethics guidelines for aestheticians. Key recommendations pertain to age limits, informed consent, confidentiality, tensions arising from aestheticians' dual role as care providers and entrepreneurs, and the management of incidental findings. This article directs scholarly effort at ethical issues in the beauty salon, and invites further discussion of a hitherto underserved field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the authors' reactions to the Netherlands' BNN Broadcasting Company television show "Big Donor Show". The show, which never aired, and was later found to be a publicity stunt to raise attention to the need for organ donation, was about a terminally ill woman who was going to talk to three patients in need of a kidney and choose one of them to donate her kidney to. Arguments are presented which suggest that there is no law against bad taste and that if the selection for kidneys can be turned into a spectacle there may be an increasing industry of shows, games and lotteries to perform triage for scarce medical resources.