**9. Ethical aspects in veterinary dysmorphology**

When a dysmorphic animal is born, its owners can have many different reactions: pity, fear or repulsion, to name a few. They also make different decisions: some will care for the animal, while others may abandon it or kill it. Those who seek a veterinarian wish to give the animal to a new owner, treat it or sacrifice it. What will be done depends on the moral and ethical principles of each owner and each veterinarian. The most common argument is that, to avoid a life of suffering, the affected animal should be euthanatized. In this case, some points have to be considered: 1) In the case of serious malformations that are incompatible with life or when there are no technical resources to treat the animal properly, the ethical choice is undoubtedly to shorten the suffering; 2) Many cases that initially seem to be incompatible with life can be fully resolved with adequate treatment, while in other cases the animal may not even require surgery to live well, as long as it received proper care and affection. This includes some cases of conjoined twins. Unlike humans, animals have no awareness of their appearance and do not suffer because of it and can live happy lives if their owner gives them care and affection; 3) If the defects are not extensive, there are owners who decide not to submit their animal to surgery when they realize that it is living well and is not suffering and they develop an emotional tie and grow used to its different appearance; 4) There are cases when medical treatment is enough to make the animal comfortable, even though it may not completely cure the deficiency; 5) There are people who cannot bear the idea of looking after dysmorphic animals, while others do not mind and feel gratified when they see that they are keeping the animal alive. These latter are often willing to adopt animals with deficiencies; 6) The treatment and monitoring of dysmorphic animals generates technical and scientific knowledge that results in improved efficiency and quality of medical and nursing care for new cases in both animals and humans. However that may be, the decisions reflect the socioeconomic and cultural status of each society.
