Chapitre 6. The challenges and effects of digital medical devices on the doctor-patient relationship, as seen through the lens of treating sleep apnoea.

Tablets, smartphones, digital platforms, connected objects with or without Artificial Intelligence (AI) are invading our daily lives and transforming our relationships with others. Having already entered the field of wellness, in recent years we have seen the expectations and hopes raised by these new devices turn towards the field of health. In 2019, the European Parliament passed a resolution on a comprehensive European industrial policy on artificial intelligence and robotics 55, calling for caution in the use of algorithmic processes in the medical field and stressing that “the current system of approval of Digital Medical Devices may not be suitable for AI technologies”. Drawing on the framework of the treatment of sleep apnoea by continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), our reflection highlights the fact that the increase in the amount of data, the acceleration of information, the disparity in the attractiveness and skills in IT and AI between the actors involved (doctors and patients), as well as the subjective effects of these changes lead to a redefinition of the doctor-patient relationship and a transformation of medical practice more generally.

Chapitre 4. Réflexions éthiques et juridiques sur le transhumanisme dans une perspective de développement durable.

The quest for sustainable development intervenes with regard to the essential elements of the natural environment of man and his intrinsic constitution. It is apprehended as a major element of humanity in its dignity, its singularity, its uniqueness, its universality, which require respect. Prospective ethical reflections on current practices aim to highlight the different practices of transhumanism likely to be detrimental to sustainable development, which leads to other ethical reflections on the legal need to regulate transhumanist activities to respond for the purpose of sustainable development.

[Chapter 6. Prenatal diagnostics, the risks of progress]. / Chapitre 6. Les diagnostics anténataux, les risques du progrès.

Although prenatal diagnostics undoubtedly represent a source of progress in the fight against serious genetic and infectious diseases, there are significant risks of drifting off course. It is therefore necessary to protect both the future beings, ie the embryos and the fœtuses, and their parents who are likely to undergo pressure from family, society, the medical sector and the state.