Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) “saved National Security Council Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) last week,” apparently inadvertently confirming a rumor that King recently underwent a coronary artery stent operation.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and KMT mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) condemned Ko for what they described as a violation of medical ethics.
Ko, when replying to ongoing controversy over the hospital’s MG149 account, said that the KMT should stop damaging the nation’s medical research for an advantage in upcoming elections, especially when NTUH had saved Lien before and King last week.
“Barbaric as they may be, Western nations would not attack churches and hospitals [during war],” he said, adding that NTUH is the nation’s most important hospital and the center of medical research.
“[The account] has existed since 1994 and should not be seen as something corrupt,” he said.
He later described his revelation as “a slip of the tongue,” adding that he would no longer answer questions that concern patient privacy.
The rumor about King’s heart surgery was reported by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) earlier this week, but had not been confirmed nor commented on by the council.
Lien’s spokesperson Chien Chen-yu (錢震宇) railed against Ko, saying that the revelation was not a simple gaffe, but a serious violation of physicians’ medical ethics.
“The job of physicians is to save people, and keeping patients’ personal information to themselves is a basic principle. Ko, who is not even King’s attending physician, leaked King’s information and should be condemned according to a higher moral standard, as he is now a mayoral candidate.”
“Taipei City’s residents would not want a mayor who would leak their private information,” Chien said, adding that this was not the first time that Ko had done so, since Ko once “joked about Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu’s (胡志強) wife’s injury.”
Responding to Ko’s remark about not attacking churches and hospitals, Chien said Lien agrees with it, “but Ko is a candidate, not a church priest or a NTUH superintendent.”
“Ko should be responsible for his actions and remarks, which would be closely examined by citizens,” Chien said.
The revelation showed that Ko is “morally problematic,” Lien said.
KMT spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) called Ko’s revelation a violation of basic physician professional ethics.
“Ko has been touting his ‘saving other people’s lives,’ which exposes his arrogance. There are many doctors saving lives every day in Taiwan, but nobody brags about it like Ko,” Chen added.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) disagreed with contentions that Ko’s revelation of King’s health status was a slip of the tongue.
“King is the nation’s National Security Council secretary-general and his health problem, if serious, would be a national security issue and concerns all nationals,” Tsai said.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) agreed that people have rights to know about the health of high-ranking officials, within limits.
‘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
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
RSS