Professional contracts concluded by physicians are specific. Indeed, these contracts must be compliant with ethical standards of the profession. As a professional authority, the College of physicians introduces obligations under which professionals have to stipulate several specific clauses and transmit their written contracts to the College, which controls their conformity. However, the normative power of these obligations is weak. To ensure the respect of ethical standards in professional contracts, soft law is more and more used by the College.

By its judgment of 7 December 2017, the European Court of Justice replied to a request for a preliminary ruling from France regarding the legal qualification of a drug prescription assistance software. The European Court judged that this kind of software, since it has a medical purpose, is a medical device. It must therefore bear the CE marking of conformity, when it is placed on the market, but cannot be the subject of any other procedure, such as an additional certification imposed by a national regulation.

Opening of medical datas and files is nowadays an important challenge. French Government increments new rules to allow access to these data files.

Resume La decision par laquelle le prefet suspend ou annule un permis de conduire, ou restreint sa validite, au motif que son titulaire est atteint d’une affection medicale incompatible avec la conduite d’un vehicule presente le caractere d’une mesure de police et doit, par suite, etre motivee, et l’information medicale resulte de l’indication portee sur le formulaire annexe (Conseil d’Etat, 19 juillet 2017, n o 393408, Tables).

Avoiding the use of abortion by minors is the aim that has been pursued since 2000 through the facilitated access of young girls to emergency contraception : breaking numerous rules relative to health security and to Social Security, the dispensation is done anonymously and free of charge. However, the analysis shows that the three postulates from which this policy was built – satisfactory benefit/risk ratio of emergency contraception, safety of repeated medication and real efficiency to reduce numbers of unwanted pregnancies and abortion – are not validated. In addition, there are some indications that this policy is not devoid of adverse effects.