Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Peter Lin (林進興) said yesterday that the decision of Taichung City's health department to revoke his medical license was unreasonable.
During the last days of campaigning for the Dec. 3 elections, Lin, a practicing physician, and 11 other doctors released what they claimed were Taichung Mayor Jason Hu's (
The department's disciplinary committee decided on Wednesday to revoke Lin's license for one year, or oblige him to take eight to 24 hours of mandatory courses on medical ethics.
Lin said that Taichung's health department had no right to make the decision as his license was registered in Kaohsiung. Taichung's health department was acting only under Hu's orders, he said.
Lin said the punishment was decided according to articles 23 and 25 of the Doctor's Law (
Although the department could have made the decision based on article 29 of the law, which stipulates a fine of between NT$20,000 (US$625) and NT$100,000 for revealing patient records, politics had caused the department to revoke his license instead, Lin said.
In addition, Hu was not "his patient," Lin added.
"I did not reveal my own patient's records. Also, I was acting as a legislator and not a doctor at the time," Lin said. "It had nothing to do with my ethics as a doctor."
Lin said that in the US medical records of political candidates were open to public evaluation, and he was taking the opportunity to push for the same law in the country.
Lin added that he had not "handed out" or "brandished" the records, but only held them in his hand while the media filmed them.
DPP Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (
ACCESS DENIAL: Beijing would likely take formation in the Philippine Sea, outside Taipei’s missile range, while its forces on the east would be a deterrent to foreign aid China is increasingly likely to employ a strategy of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) around Taiwan, which would use three carrier groups, a report from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. When China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, is completed next year, China would have three carriers, which would likely be used to surround Taiwan and implement an A2/AD strategy, it said, adding that efforts to strengthen China’s two other carriers — the Liaoning and the Shandong — appear to corroborate this. In the quarterly report, the council cited declassified documents from the Ministry of National Defense that categorized China’s carriers as
Two German warships are awaiting orders from Berlin to determine whether they would be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait next month, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing, a German commander said. While the US and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the Strait since 2002. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km waterway that divides the two sides. Taiwan strongly objects to these claims, saying only its people
Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday called for more international backing for Taiwan and a coordinated pushback against China’s claims over the nation. “The United States should elevate Taiwan on the world stage. You should no longer be silenced in global affairs,” Haley told an audience at the Ketagalan Forum, a Taipei conference focused on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. She called for Taiwan to become a full member of the UN, even though it is being blocked by China from representation in international bodies. While the US does not formally recognize Taiwan, it is the nation's strongest
China sent 50 military planes and vessels to the vicinity of Taiwan in the 24 hours starting at 6am on Friday, while President William Lai (賴清德) was visiting Kinmen for the first time since taking office in May to mark the 66th anniversary of the 823 Artillery Bombardment. Flight paths released yesterday by the Ministry of National Defense showed that 38 military aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the highest number recorded in recent weeks. The figure included 32 that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension. Of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft