The president of the Korean Medical Association held a press conference in front of the National Assembly on the 17th to protest the amendment to the medical law. News 1
As the amendment to the medical law, which strengthened the requirements for canceling the doctor’s license, passed the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee on the 19th, medical organizations such as the Korean Medical Association are strongly opposed. The amendment is characterized by widening the criteria for canceling a doctor’s license to violent crimes such as murder, robbery, and sexual assault beyond imprisonment, and prohibiting the re-issuance of the license for five years after the end of the sentence. Currently, doctors’ licenses are revoked only in cases where medical treatment is impossible, such as mental illness, and medical crimes of imprisonment or higher.
The Korea Medical Association rebels against it, saying, “Even if a medical practitioner is imprisoned and probation due to negligence while driving a car, he will not be able to conduct medical treatment for several years.” Traffic accidents were not directly mentioned in the amendment, and imprisonment could be sentenced for serious negligence in traffic accidents, but fines are also possible, so death does not mean that the license is unconditionally revoked. According to the imprisonment, where the deprivation of public qualifications is the core, all professions, including lawyers, except for doctors, are also punished for crimes other than work-related, so the claim of “infringement of the principle of equality under the constitution” is not reasonable.
The revision of the law is not new. Until the revision of the medical law in 2000, when the requirements for revocation of a doctor’s license were reduced, it was subject to imprisonment or higher, including general crimes. Amendments were made 20 times to change the law against common sense, which allows you to work as a doctor even after committing a violent crime or sex crime, but it failed. It is difficult to say that the amendment is too much even in the case of Japan, where the doctor’s license is revoked or suspended even after receiving a fine, or Germany, where the license is suspended until the decision is finalized if a doctor becomes a criminal defendant.
The overwhelming support of public opinion for the revision of the law is revealed even when a related Blue House petition last year obtained 200,000 consent within four days. Despite the circumstances, the president of the Medical Association of Choi Sang-jip even mentioned that when the bill was passed, “the struggle to return 130,000 doctors’ licenses, a general strike for doctors nationwide” was unsuccessful. The behavior of threatening even the people who are looking forward to vaccination only because of the interests of doctors is speechless.
News directly edited by the Hankook Ilbo can also be viewed on Naver.
