A provider of « pleasure » ultrasounds condemned to a suspended fine – Liberation
An imaging that reserves like a restaurant table. The Dunkirk Court sentenced an entrepreneur to a suspended fine for Monday 2 June for a suspended fine for « Echographies of pleasure », A commercial service offered to pregnant women outside the medical framework. This forty-year-old was found guilty of illegal exercise in the professions of doctor and midwife, and sentenced to a fine of 3,500 euros, accompanied by a single stay. On April 28, the prosecution requested a ban on exercising and a suspended fine.
This manipulator in training radiology had opened her business in the North in 2023. Her company offered pregnant women so -called ultrasound « Pleasure » : 3D examinations allowing to visualize the face of the fetus, in addition to those carried out as part of classic medical follow -up pregnancy. Last week, the entrepreneur said he had ceased her activity since her questioning and being in retraining. She had also deplored being the subject of threats on the internet.
His lawyer, Me Fabien Chirola, had pleaded the release, arguing that her client had not intended to commit something illegal. Me Chirola estimated this Monday « Having been heard by the court », the sentence pronounced constituting according to him « A release that has not been assumed ». However, he regretted that his client pays the price « A form of legal vagueness ».
The National Council of the Order of Midwives, which is concerned about the increase in recent years of this type of ultrasound of convenience, was delighted with the holding of this first trial and of this conviction. « This merchant is not the only one to practice in France, these cabinets are stores in many French departments », reacted its president, Isabelle Derrendinger. The order has also already made several reports, notably to the regional health agencies (ARS). In the North, its departmental antenna has gone up to the prosecution two other cases.
Studies from the High Authority for Health (HAS) as many learned companies in France show that the use of ultrasounds with high frequency « Is not beneficial for the fetus » When practiced excessively or without reason, the president of the departmental council of the Order of Northern midwives, Anaïs Huguet on Monday. She said she hoped that this decision will jurisprudence and « Let us close all of these offices ».
In 2012, the HAS estimated in a report that carrying out commercial fetal ultrasounds, without medical reasons, was contrary to the codes of ethics of doctors and midwives who prohibit them from practicing medicine as a business. A ministerial decree of April 2018 said that « Only doctors and midwives realize (…) obstetric and fetal ultrasounds ».
