A lawmaker yesterday asked the health authorities to strengthen the regulations governing medical advertising after what she alleged were indecent pictures were posted on the Internet by a doctor.
Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) of the Democratic Progressive Party said she was informed that a gynecologist had posted several indecent pictures, including a photo of female genitalia, in his medical advertisements.
The advertisements also included pictures of breast implant surgery, Huang said, adding that a close examination of the description of the surgery revealed possible violations of the law.
“This clearly shows that there is lax management of medical advertisements on the Internet,” she said.
A women’s group, meanwhile, alleged that the implant surgery advertisement contained false information and therefore violated the Medical Care Act (醫療法).
Tsai Wan-fen (蔡宛芬), secretary-general of Taiwan Women’s Link, said the advertisement claims that silicon implants have been approved by the Department of Health (DOH) for breast augmentation surgery.
“But the DOH has only approved silicon implants for breast reconstruction surgery and the approval does not apply to cosmetic breast augmentation surgery,” Tsai said.
In response, a DOH official said it had instructed the gynecologist to remove the content from his Web site and if the allegations were found to be true, the DOH would take disciplinary action against him.
Liu Ming-hsun (劉明勳), a senior specialist in the DOH’s Bureau of Medical Affairs, said the case had already been turned over to the Taipei City Government’s health bureau.
If the allegations are true, the doctor could be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000 and have his practice restricted, be suspended for practice of between one month and one year, or have his medical license revoked.
Liu also said that starting from next month, medical institutions wanting to post online information related to medical care would have to submit the content to the health authorities in case of controversy or disputes over such ads.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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