A young woman in Shanghai filed an appeal claiming she was sexually harassed by a doctor, her lawyer said yesterday.

Xu Yuzhou, the woman's lawyer, said the appeal was filed with Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, but that no date had been given for a hearing.

"We hope the intermediate court can make it clear that the physical exam of my client was necessary, reasonable and normal," Xu said. "We just want the doctor to admit what he did and apologize."

The woman, surnamed Zhao, has filed the city's first sexual harassment case after the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women was refined in August. It now states that sexual harassment is illegal.

Zhao, 26, stayed in Shanghai No. 6 Hospital for surgery on her lower back in July 2005.

One night an orthopedist, surnamed Xu, checked on Zhao's ward without any nurses present. Zhao's mother was with her at the time and there were other patients in the ward when the doctor examined Zhao.

According to Zhao's lawyer, doctor Xu touched the woman's breast and private parts without wearing gloves. Zhao didn't resist and neither she or her mother told the doctor to stop.

But afterward, Zhao was suspicious about the examination and reported to police that she was sexually harassed, her lawyer said.

In the previous hearing, rejected by Xuhui District People's Court, Zhao's lawyer presented a taped recording in which doctor Xu admitted the examination was improper and that he hoped to settle the case privately.

But in the hearing, Xu insisted it was his responsibility to examine patients thoroughly. The doctor also said it is standard procedure to check the skin around the private parts of any patient with Zhao's condition.

(Shanghai Daily July 14, 2006)