Accusations by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislators Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) and Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) that independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was complicit in the harvesting of organs from patients not yet brain dead drew fire from doctors across the country.
Citing a paper on organ transplantation co-authored by Ko 15 years ago, Su, who is also the chairman of the Taiwan Medical Association, said that parts of the paper suggest that organs might have been taken from some patients before they were brain dead, and thus Ko was involved in live organ harvesting.
Ko, who used to work at NTUH before he took a year’s leave in February to run for Taipei mayor, has brushed off the accusations as politically motivated and aimed at blackening his name during the election.
A co-author of the paper, Chen Yi-hsiang (陳益祥), who is a surgeon at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), rebutted the allegation yesterday.
“We certainly consulted the families of the patients and obtained their consent before the operations. If we didn’t, their families would have protested,” Chen said. “We didn’t start the transplantations until the patients were dead, and we had consent from their families — to be more accurate, we were working on corpses.”
Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德), who was also a doctor before becoming a politician, said it was very inappropriate for Su to make such an accusation.
“He is no longer qualified to serve as head of the Taiwan Medical Association. He should resign from it, because he’s an embarrassment to all medical personnel,” Lai said.
Meanwhile, a netizen said the accusations of organ harvesting at the nation’s leading hospital rub salt in the wounds of family members who have approved organ donations.
Posting on Professional Technology Temple (PTT) — the nation’s largest academic online bulletin board — a user by the name of “siberia” recounted the story of his mother’s death as an example of the pain family members experience in deciding whether or not to agree to organ donation.
“[My mother] didn’t even have the chance to see my first paycheck,” said “siberia,” adding that he is a physician. After he graduated from medical school, his mother suffered severe brain damage when a cerebral aneurysm burst on his second day of work. After a second cerebral aneurysm burst later the same week and left her in a severe and irreversible coma, his father broached the subject of organ donation.
“I struggled more in that moment than at any other time in my life,” he wrote, even though his mother had signed a consent form and he knew how rare her undamaged organs were.
He and his father — also a physician — ultimately decided in favor of allowing the organs to be donated, but were overruled by other family members.
“Siberia” called the accusations of organ harvesting irresponsible and insensitive, rubbing salt in the wounds of family members and discouraging further donations.
“The government is allowing the efforts behind organ donation in Taiwan to perish in a moment for the sake of an election,” said “siberia,” adding that every day in Taiwan there are 70,000 people who undergo dialysis.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
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