Is this medicine?

The New York Times has a prominent article about doctors from all specialties opening practices in cosmetic medicine. I think everyone has a right to make a buck being an entrepreneur, but I worry that physicians who indulge in this kind of frivolousness give medical professionalism a big black eye. First, the motivations are obviously pecuniary, or do we really believe that doctors who say, "when you clear up someone’s acne or facial hair, they are as grateful as if you delivered their baby," are doing much more than salving their guilt with self-deception? The statement is so silly it doesn't even really need to be parodied.

Second, the medical profession has many, many legitimate grudges about how its services are valued, especially as physician and hospital reimbursements shrink, even as insurance company executive salaries and pharmaceutical company profits soar, leading physicians to abandon some specialties and geographic areas and to the closure of many hospitals. But is the best, most responsible way, to respond to abandon many of the core principles of medicine in favor of an easy (and superficial) buck? Or will high profile articles like these contribute to a poor opinion of medical professionals?

Ancient oaths, like those of Maimonides, require that physicians heal without regard to their own satisfaction, material or otherwise. Are we really so under pressure that we have to abandon all that?