Coroners yesterday praised a new National Taiwan University department to train those wanting to join their profession, saying that it would go a long way to alleviating the nation's chronic shortage of coroners.
"The new Forensic Medicine Graduate School will be able to educate more qualified coroners in the future. No question about it," said Shih Tai-ping (石台平), director of the Forensic Medicine Department of the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau (刑事警察局). "We definitely need more young people to devote themselves to this business."
The university could not be reached for comment yesterday. However, according to an announcement it made last week, no schedule has been set for the graduate school, which would be the first of its kind in the country.
According to the Forensic Medicine Research Center of the Ministry of Justice, there are 60 coroners in Taiwan. Although they all went through the Ministry of Justice's forensic medical training course and passed the exam, not all of them are medical school graduates. Taiwan requires between 80 and 100 coroners, according to the ministry.
To enter the department, candidates can be graduates in any related field, such as dentistry or veterinary science. As a benchmark, just 10 of Taiwan's 60 coroners meet US forensic requirements, which are much more stringent than those of Taiwan.
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