Subsection 2: Duties towards patients.

The doctor must accompany the dying person until his or her last moments, ensure the quality of a life that is coming to an end through appropriate care and measures, safeguard the dignity of the patient and comfort those around him or her. They do not have the right to deliberately bring about death.

Doctors may not suggest to patients or their relatives that a remedy or procedure that is illusory or insufficiently tested is beneficial or safe. Any practice of charlatanism is prohibited.

The doctor must refrain, in the investigations and interventions he carries out as well as in the therapies he prescribes, from exposing the patient to an unjustified risk.

No mutilating operation may be carried out without very serious medical grounds and, unless it is an emergency or impossible, without the patient’s knowledge and consent.

Subject to the provisions of article L. 1111-5, a doctor called upon to provide care to a minor must endeavour to inform his parents or legal representative and obtain their consent. If the minor is capable of expressing his wishes and participating in the decision, his consent must also be sought. A doctor called upon to provide care to an adult who is the subject of a legal protection measure…

The doctor must act as the child’s advocate when he or she feels that the interests of the child’s health are being misunderstood or misguided by those around him or her.

When a doctor becomes aware that a person to whom he or she is called is being abused or deprived, he or she must take the most appropriate steps to protect that person by exercising prudence and circumspection. In the case of a minor or a person who is unable to protect himself because of his age or physical or mental state, he shall alert the judicial or administrative authorities,…

I. – Independently of the medical file provided for by law, the doctor keeps a personal observation sheet for each patient; this sheet is confidential and contains up-to-date information necessary for diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. The doctor’s personal notes are neither passed on nor accessible to the patient or third parties. In all cases, these documents are kept under the doctor’s responsibility. II – At the patient’s request or with…

When a patient requests access to his or her medical records through a doctor, the latter will take account of the patient’s interests only and will recuse himself or herself in the event of a conflict of interest.

Whatever the circumstances, continuity of patient care must be ensured. Except in emergencies and when failing in their duty of humanity, doctors have the right to refuse care for professional or personal reasons. If he does so, he must inform the patient and provide the doctor designated by the patient with the information required to continue the treatment.