A number of entertainers are suspected of evading military service by forging medical documents. As the cases involve alleged collusion with medical institutions, it touches not only on justice and integrity, but also on medical ethics and social trust.
Medical practice is regulated by the laws such as the Physicians Act (醫師法) and the Medical Care Act (醫療法), with integrity being a fundamental principle. If a doctor is involved in medical certificate forgery, they are intentionally contravening the core ethics of the medical profession.
The authority of doctors in public hospitals mostly comes from the trust that the public places in them. When people use them as a tool to shirk national obligations, it not only hurts the profession’s image as a whole, but also weakens the social trust in it. Doctors are often reluctant to issue certificates for Barthel Index-based health evaluations or medical expert testimonies, showing that they are unwilling to take on such judicial responsibility. If a conscript diagnosis certificate is inaccurate, we cannot rule out the possibility that medical workers have been defrauded by medical scalpers. However, there is always a paper trail, and prosecutors and investigators should be able to find out where the problem lies by investigating the suspects and the practice of military service evasion.
According to Article 5 of the Punishment Act for Violation to Military Service System (妨害兵役治罪條例), a person trying to evade general mobilization or temporary mobilization by fabricating a reason for an exemption, suspension, transfer or postponement of service, as well as for random mobilization or late mobilization, would be sentenced to no more than five years of imprisonment. The Criminal Code’s punishments for offenses of document forgery and related laws would also be applicable.
In other words, if a doctor intentionally issues a false diagnosis certificate, causing the military service unit to misclassify a conscript, he would be committing a criminal offense and be held liable. Were any medical workers willing to take the risk? This still remains to be investigated. If they were, it might be necessary to review how society views integrity.
We teach children to be honest and social education is an important link in this. While we respect students’ free development, the government should take responsibility in promoting “integrity education” in society.
Recently, a Taiwanese obstetrician-gynecologist sexually assaulted a patient while performing a “pelvic examination.” Although the court imposed a penalty on him, government agencies are failing to respond to the demands and expectations of the public in a timely manner. As more time passes, during the second and third trial of criminal cases, lawyers may find excuses to argue that the judicial procedures were flawed or that the evidence was doubtful. In the end, criminals often receive a lighter penalty after this process, which makes the public unable to trust judicial justice.
Lee Po-chang is a chair professor at Taipei Medical University’s College of Public Health.
Translated by Eddy Chang
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
In China, competition is fierce, and in many cases suppliers do not get paid on time. Rather than improving, the situation appears to be deteriorating. BYD Co, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer by production volume, has gained notoriety for its harsh treatment of suppliers, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability. The case also highlights the decline of China’s business environment, and the growing risk of a cascading wave of corporate failures. BYD generally does not follow China’s Negotiable Instruments Law when settling payments with suppliers. Instead the company has created its own proprietary supply chain finance system called the “D-chain,” through which
RSS