Dr. Emile Daraï, gynecologist specializing in endometriosis at Tenon hospital, has been indicted 32 times for voluntary violence since 2022. However, he continues his consultations while awaiting his trial, which is denounced by elected officials from the city of Paris, who unanimously voted for a request for suspension from the AP-HP and the Order of Physicians.
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“I support Professor Émile Daraï’s request for suspension and the immediate cessation of his consultations.” The deputy mayor of Paris in charge of health, Anne-Claire Boux was not the only one to vote for this resolution during the last city council meeting in 2024, on December 18.
It is in fact unanimously that the elected representatives of the Council of Paris expressed the wish that this gynecologist from Tenon hospital (20th arrondissement), targeted since 2022 by 32 indictments for “intentional violence by person responsible for a public service mission”, be removed from his functions pending his trial.
At the initiative of the elected environmentalist Emmanuelle Rivier, delegated to the mayor of the 20th in charge of gender equality and the fight against violence against women, the political body has put new pressure on the hospitals of Paris, and for the first time, on the Order of Physicians, concerning this affair.
“32 indictments, this means that there are serious and consistent clues”recalls Emmanuelle Rivier, also a lawyer. “As a precautionary principle, and to protect patients, it is said that it is necessary to suspend it pending the end of the investigation. Will the Order of Physicians continue to remain silent while the mayor of Paris, with all the representatives of the inhabitants of Paris behind her, including the right of the hemicycle, is calling on her?indicates the elected official.
As a reminder, ithe endometriosis specialist was accused in 2021 of having performed brutal and even violent medical procedures without seeking consent by patients. The collective Stop Obstetrical and Gynecological Violence claims to have collected 190 reports concerning it, and 36 complaints were filed for “rape, gang rape and rape of a minor”. For four of them, the facts were prescribed. The term rape was ultimately not retained by the investigation.
The public hospital has a duty to set an example.
Emmanuelle Rivier, lawyer and elected mayor of the 20th arrondissement of Paris
Following an internal investigation, the Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) recognized “mistreatment” by mentioning “the standardized, rapid, technical and affectless nature of the consultation, sometimes brutal and without empathy“. “The obligation to inform these patients, to relieve their pain, to respect their wishes have not been respected”.
He has since been removed from his position as head of department at Tenon Hospital and from his teaching responsibilities at Sorbonne University. But he continues to have the right to receive patients in gynecology-obstetrics consultations, public or private. “The public hospital has a duty to set an example. according to Emmanuelle Rivier. In the hemicycle, she says that she received the testimony a month ago, “of a woman who went to consultations with fear in her stomach”. “When you are a patient at Tenon Hospital, you don’t choose your doctor. In the end, she didn’t end up with him.”
For its part, the AP-HP assures that it “strictly applies the conditions of judicial review decided by the investigating judge, who alone has knowledge of all the elements of the investigation file, within the framework of the current procedure”. After submitting this internal report to the authorities (Ministry of Health, ARS), the institution indicates that “lThe conditions for organizing consultations have been reviewed” with, as recommended in the investigation report, a “consent of patients collected and traced before carrying out the procedures during consultations”et “a nursing staff present during consultations”.
“If it is an intern, or a caregiver below him at the hierarchical level, It's not reassuring at all.”deplores Sonia Bisch, founder and spokesperson for Stop VOG, who recalls that at the time, “they are first of all twitnesses, young doctors with great integrity, who raised the alarm.” His collective had launched a petition demanding the suspension of the doctor from 2022 (28,000 signatures). In 2023, the Sorbonne student unions were also outraged by the continuation of these consultations. The Paris Council is on its third appeal. In the meantime, other controversies recalled the Daraï case, even if at the same time, patients also wrote a letter of support to the doctor. Contacted, Emile Daraï's counsel did not respond to our requests.
“Despite everything, nothing moves“regrets Sonia Bisch. “What are all these institutions doing that have powers of suspension, such as the Regional Health Agency, or the National Management Council of Hospital Practitioners? Will we have to wait 10 to 15 years of trial each time? aren't they there to guarantee the safety and health of patients?”says the activist, who believes that this is “common sense”. “Pmaybe we have to come to strikes, to demonstrations… But it would be a shame to arrive at such a balance of power.”
For Emmanuelle Rivier, this situation can be explained by a broader problem which is at the heart of medical practice. “The real problem is the relationship of authority between the doctor and his patient. The notion of consent for doctors is very far from being obvious.judges this elected official, who has already faced this questioning during an episode in her personal life. “Qhen I was about to give birth in a hospital room, I saw a gentleman arrive who didn't introduce himself and who didn't say anything to me. He started wanting to give me an epidural (anesthesia technique which relieves pain during childbirth, editor's note) without asking for my consent. I know I'm not the only one, and besides, this is not limited to the gynecological field.”
The controversy surrounding the fate of Professor Daraï will at least have made it possible to talk more about gynecological violence. Because according to the president of Stop VOG, “It’s the tree that hides the forest: the medical community lacks whistleblowers”. At the end of November, the National Council of the Order of Physicians published its survey on gender-based and sexual violence (SGBV) in the medical environment. If the institution announces “zero tolerance” on cases of SGBV between caregivers, it does not comment on the case of violence committed by caregivers on patients.
