[Ideals of beauty and the medical manipulation of the body between free choice and coercion].

[DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM] There is an increasing demand for invasive forms of cosmetic surgery. In view of the omnipresent confrontation with some idealized standards of beauty in advertising, films, beauty-shows etc., this paper deals with the question of whether women undergo cosmetic surgery because they are forced by a norm-setting beauty system or whether they choose these operations themselves.

[ARGUMENTS] I offer an analysis of what could be an adequate concept of autonomous choice in this area. Particularly, it will be shown that a libertarian concept of autonomy is inadequate for analyzing the moral status of cosmetic surgery.

[CONCLUSION] A concept of autonomy is outlined that enables us to qualify certain kinds of pressure as autonomy restricting.