Victims of sexual abuse by their doctors, several women are launching a petition this Tuesday, March 27, asking that sexual relations between caregivers and patients be formally prohibited by the code of medical ethics.
They are three women, Marie, Cassandre and Ariane (the first names have been changed) to have, for months or years, been sexually abused by the psychiatrists who followed them.
Victims of “sexual predators” in “white coats” or “on the couch”, they are mobilizing today to put an end to these abuses of weakness by launching theOperation Hippocratic Oath. Supported by Dr Dominique Dupagne, liberal general practitioner and website creator Atoute.org, which houses the “Relationship between caregivers and patients” forum where they met, they demand that the medical ethics code prohibit doctors from having sexual relations with their patients.
“An abuse of weakness aggravated by an abuse of authority”
Signed by 16 personalities, including the President of the Fédération des Médecins de France (FMF) Jean-Paul Hamon, the psychiatrist Christophe André or the general practitioner Gilles Halimi, also a member of the High Council for Equality between women and men , the petition launched on March 27 calls for an article to be added to the code of medical ethics specifying that “the doctor must refrain from all sexual relations with the patients for whom he is responsible”. Currently, this chin does not appear in any regulatory text, nor even in the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take before they start to exercise. While it appeared there before the twentieth century.
However, says Dr Dominique Dupagne, this is a “real abuse of weakness aggravated by an abuse of authority”. “There is too much asymmetry. A patient is not a simple adult free of his choices. The therapeutic relationship creates a well-known vulnerability called transference love, ”he explains to the Parisian. “As a professional, the doctor knows exactly what he is doing. He chooses victims who have little self-confidence: more vulnerable and often unable to sustain legal proceedings if they file a complaint. He will then rely on the weaknesses entrusted under the seal of medical confidentiality to manipulate and seduce, ”explains Dr. Dupagne in an interview with The Obs.
Like other women, Cassandre, Marie and Ariane put all their trust in the doctor who subsequently abused them. In a testimony given to Parisian, Marie, 54, speaks of “control” and “manipulation” to refer to the psychiatrist she had consulted since 2006 and who took advantage of her state of extreme vulnerability to have sex with her. “I was lost,” she continues. One day he kissed me, opened his diary and made another date. Like that. I didn’t have feelings for him, but I let him decide for me, ”she says.
Before criticizing the petition on the doctor / patient sexual interdict, listen to the Tête au Carré of this day, in particular the dignified and moving testimony of Cassandre. We’ll talk about it later. We will never do better: https://t.co/pfVkU8XlqL #OperationHippocrates
– Dominique Dupagne (@DDupagne) March 27, 2018
A corporatism that benefits doctors
But when Marie ends up filing a complaint against her psychiatrist with the departmental council of the Order of Physicians, it relies on the absence of an article prohibiting sexual relations with patients and receives a simple warning, namely the lowest disciplinary sanction. After having appealed, Marie obtains from the national council of the Order that he condemns the practitioner to six months of prohibition to practice.
“There is a very strong corporatism among doctors, we have plenty of examples where the departmental councils of the Order protect the notables”, regrets Dr. Pupagne in The world. As for criminal complaints, they are most often declared inadmissible.
For its part, the National Council of the Order of Physicians assures that they are leading “a determined fight against all kinds of sexual abuse that doctors would commit”. However, he said he was unfavorable to the addition of an article on caregiver-patient relations because it would constitute an “intrusion into the private life of free and consenting persons”.
What if we forbade sexual relations between patients and doctors? https://t.co/QRZRCInovW
– The Parisian (@le_Parisien) March 27, 2018
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