[Leg amputation as a result of attempted voluntary abortion]

The authors looked at the clinical situation and the possible pathogenicity which in this case was almost certainly traumatic. It would explain the total absence of one leg at the delivery of a baby who had no other psychomotor changes. They used this very exceptional case history of the loss of the lower limb after an attempt at terminating a pregnancy to study the matter from the French and foreign bibliography on the subject, which anyhow is very short. There was an attempt to terminate a pregnancy at an undisclosed duration of amenorrhoea (between 9 and 13 weeks) by suction evacuation followed by curettage. On the medico-legal side the authors analysed the reasons why there was no penal indictment brought at the same time as the civil action was brought prosecution, and also points out that the Conseil d'Etat decided, contrary to the Administrative Tribunal who were petitioned as to the responsibility for the serious handicap this child suffered to be established publically. They analysed the evolution of judicial and administrative jurisprudence on the matter of failure to terminate a pregnancy. The authors list other possibilities for traumatising a fetus in utero when the inside of the uterus is explored either when the pregnancy is a spontaneous pregnancy or an assisted reproductive pregnancy. The cases of pregnancy requiring a reduction in the number of embryos who will be born or the destruction of handicapped children whose legal status seems not only to be recognised at birth, but even in utero by the judges of the supreme administrative court.