Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The right to medical care

Taipei Times Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has often spoken of his respect for the judiciary, pledged to never interfere in individual cases and lectured government officials on acting in accordance with the law. However, the recent brouhaha over former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) sudden transfer from Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) in Taipei to a prison hospital in Greater Taichung suggests otherwise.

Chen, serving a 20-year jail sentence for corruption, has been diagnosed with severe depression, sleep apnea, non-typical Parkinson’s disease, speech disorder and mild cerebral atrophy. Yet, despite a professional evaluation by Chou Yuan-hua (周元華), Chen’s attending physician at TVGH, who said the former president should be allowed to convalesce at home or at a hospital closer to home where he can benefit from family support, the Ministry of Justice early on Friday morning abruptly moved Chen to Taichung Prison’s Pei Teh Hospital without notifying Chen’s family.

Nation confirms its first case of H7N9 avian flu

Taipei Times

A picture made available yesterday shows the Bali Geese Farm in Bali, New Taipei City, on April 3.
Photo: David Chang, EPA

A 53-year-old Taiwanese man who had worked in China’s Jiangsu Province has tested positive for the H7N9 avian flu virus, the Central Epidemic Command Center said yesterday.

The man, who is now in serious condition, is receiving treatment, including intubation, in a negative-pressure quarantine ward, the center said.

Breaking: Twin self-immolation protests in Tibet, Toll rises to 117

Phayul.com

Tibetan self-immolators Lobsang Dawa, 20 (left) and Kunchok Woeser, 23 (right) who set themselves on fire protesting China's occupation in Zoege region of eastern Tibet on April 24, 2013.

DHARAMSHALA, April 24: In reports coming just in, two young Tibetan monks of the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Zoege, eastern Tibet set themselves on fire today protesting China’s continued occupation of Tibet.

The exile seat of the Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala identified the two monks as Lobsang Dawa, 20 and Kunchok Woeser, 22.

Chen Shui-bian’s return to prison led to suicide attempt and provokes outrage

Michael Richardson

Chen Shui-bian recognized by Republic of Tuvula on postage stamp

The sudden pre-dawn transfer of Chen Shui-bian to Pei-Teh clinic at Taichung Prison from his locked psychiatric room at Veterans Hospital in Taipei last week triggered a suicide attempt by Chen after he learned the news, generated a street demonstration, spurred the Democratic Progressive Party to protest, and was condemned on April 22 by the Human Rights Action Center as “slow-motion murder”.

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