The UAE’s Federal Supreme Court has ruled that plastic surgeons bear full liability for negligence in cosmetic procedures, clarifying that such surgeries are not urgent medical interventions.
The ruling stemmed from a case involving a woman’s death after a body reshaping procedure, where the doctor was found to have deviated from accepted medical standards.
Under the decision, surgeons must not perform operations if the risks outweigh the potential benefits, even with patient consent. Doctors may be deemed at fault if their chosen methods create disproportionate risks compared with the results expected by the patient, unless no causal link to the harm can be established.
The Administrative Chamber, chaired by Judge Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Jarrah with Judges Dawood Ibrahim Abu Al Shawareb and Hassan Mohammed Hassan Hind, issued the ruling on Sept. 1 in Appeal No. 722 of 2025 Administrative.
The court emphasized that plastic surgeons have a higher duty of care than other doctors, since cosmetic operations aim to correct physical defects rather than save lives.
