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
Taiwanese pragmatism has long been praised when it comes to addressing Chinese attempts to erase Taiwan from the international stage. “Taipei” and the even more inaccurate and degrading “Chinese Taipei,” imposed titles required to participate in international events, are loathed by Taiwanese. That is why there was huge applause in Taiwan when Japanese public broadcaster NHK referred to the Taiwanese Olympic team as “Taiwan,” instead of “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. What is standard protocol for most nations — calling a national team by the name their country is commonly known by — is impossible for
India is not China, and many of its residents fear it never will be. It is hard to imagine a future in which the subcontinent’s manufacturing dominates the world, its foreign investment shapes nations’ destinies, and the challenge of its economic system forces the West to reshape its own policies and principles. However, that is, apparently, what the US administration fears. Speaking in New Delhi last week, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau warned that “we will not make the same mistakes with India that we did with China 20 years ago.” Although he claimed the recently agreed framework
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) on Wednesday last week announced it is launching investigations into 16 US trading partners, including Taiwan, under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to determine whether they have engaged in unfair trade practices, such as overproduction. A day later, the agency announced a separate Section 301 investigation into 60 economies based on the implementation of measures to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor. Several of Taiwan’s main trading rivals — including China, Japan, South Korea and the EU — also made the US’ investigation list. The announcements come
Taiwan is not invited to the table. It never has been, but this year, with the Philippines holding the ASEAN chair, the question that matters is no longer who gets formally named, it is who becomes structurally indispensable. The “one China” formula continues to do its job. It sets the outer boundary of official diplomatic speech, and no one in the region has a serious interest in openly challenging it. However, beneath the surface, something is thickening. Trade corridors, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) cooperation, supply chains, cross-border investment: The connective tissue between Taiwan and ASEAN is quietly and methodically growing
RSS