For the first time, the national disciplinary chamber of the order of doctors ruled on appeal on the advisability of sanctioning one of the signatories of an article published in March 2018 in Le Figaro. This text which denounced the practices of homeopathic doctors led to the delisting of granules. However, this national body recently confirmed the warning issued by the disciplinary chamber of Brittany against a general practitioner for breach of the duty of prudence and disregard of the “obligation of brotherhood”.
While this decision could set a precedent, it questions the notion of brotherhood. It is in his name that practitioners using techniques of unproven effectiveness have been able to launch what amount to real gag procedures. A paradox, since the incriminated forum recalled another major principle of the Code of Medical Ethics: the obligation to comply with data acquired by science.
A principle that the order itself has great difficulty enforcing, while it continues to recognize the possibility for doctors to practice homeopathy, acupuncture, osteopathy and mesotherapy. But if, tomorrow, no doctor dares to denounce ineffective, useless or dangerous procedures, even when they are implemented by “colleagues”, then the first losers will be the patients. Because the priority of the medical profession should be to guarantee the quality of care, the definition of brotherhood should urgently be re-clarified.