A civic group yesterday called on the government to offer greater support to the families of people who suffer from the rare genetic disease Prader-Willi syndrome.
The issues facing such families were highlighted recently after a nine-year-old girl who had the disease was allegedly killed by her father.
The families of patients with the disease need a lot of understanding and assistance from the public and the government, Prader-Willi Syndrome Association director Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠) said.
They also need regular visits by social workers to prevent tragedies, Chin said.
She urged parents of children with the disease to seek help outside their family circle.
The child who was allegedly killed by her father had been featured in a documentary on Prader-Willi syndrome released this year, produced by Shih Shin University’s Department of Radio, Television and Film.
On Thursday, police found the bodies of the child and her father, who was a taxi driver in New Taipei City (新北市). Police suspect it was a murder-suicide, prompted by the man’s inability to pay his debts and take care of the child.
People with Prader-Willi syndrome tend to have an intense craving for food and often develop diseases linked to obesity, such as diabetes and hypertension.
Chin, the mother of a Prader-Willi patient, said that as children with the disease grow older they want to have more control over their lives, which makes it more difficult to take care of them.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at