Electric cutting tool with automatic emergency stop

The invention concerns a safety cutting tool (10) comprising - an electrically conductive cutting member (12)， - an electric motor (20) for actuating the cutting member (12)， a gripping handle (30) for the cutting tool (10) to be gripped in the hand of a user， the gripping handle being electrically insulated from the cutting tool， - a cutting trigger control (28) that can be actuated by the hand of the user gripping the gripping handle， the cutting trigger control being electrically insulated from the cutting tool， - an emergency stop device (40) sensitive to a user coming into contact with the cutting member. According to the invention， the emergency stop device is controlled by a comparator comparing an impedance of a first electric circuit comprising the cutting tool and a second electric circuit used as a reference， the first and second circuits comprising manual contact electrodes provided on at least one of the gripping handle (30) of the tool and the cutting trigger control (28). The invention also concerns a method for controlling such a tool. The invention is applicable to electric secateurs and shears.