This post was written by guest blogger Dan Bloom, who describes himself as “an American freelance writer who has lived in Taiwan
since 1996.” These opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of Richard TPD.
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Keeping Taiwan out of the WHO health
assembly violates Hippocratic Oath

By Dan Bloom

When young men and women around the world studying to be doctors
complete their medical training, they take what is called the
Hippocratic Oath, promising to do their best to serve patients, male
and female, young and old, with care and understanding. Hippocrates
was a physician who lived in Greece more than 2,000 years ago, and his
oath, his words for doctors to live by, live on today.
Doctors across the globe live and work by the Hippocratic Oath, and
every doctor who lives in a country that is a member of the World
Health Organization (WHO) swears to uphold the declarations in this
ancient text, regardless of political affiliation or ideology.

“I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in
whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with
those who are to follow,” states a modern version of the Hippocratic
Oath, written in 1964 by a doctor at the prestigious School of
Medicine at Tufts University in Boston. “I will not be ashamed to say
`I know not,’ nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills
of another are needed for a patient’s recovery. In addition, I will
try to prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to
cure. I will also remember that I remain a member of society, with
special obligations to all my fellow human beings.”

In addition to the time-honored Hippocratic Oath, the General Assembly
of the World Medical Association at Geneva in 1948 published a global
declaration of a doctor’s dedication to the humanitarian goals of the
medical profession. This Declaration of Geneva was intended to update
the Oath of Hippocrates, and states in part, “As a member of the
medical profession, I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to
the service of humanity.”

In addition, the Declaration of Geneva notably proclaims: “I will not
permit consideration of religion, nationality, race, party, politics
or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patients.”

Every professional doctor in China knows and understands what the
Hippocratic Oath and the Declaration of Geneva are all about. For the
leaders of their country to stand in opposition to Taiwan joining the
WHO as “a health entity with observer status,” as Taiwan’s government
has requested, is a slap in the face to both an honored, ancient oath
and a modern, principled declaration.

As Professor Dennis Hickey, a friend of Taiwan at Southwest Missouri
State University, has noted, Taiwan’s participation in the WHO may not
be a panacea or a magic bullet for the WHO’s efforts in future SARS or
bird-flu epidemic prevention, but it will help considerably. For
doctors in China to continue to support their government’s practice of
“health apartheid” against Taiwan is unconscionable.

Doctors are doctors, regardless of ideology or ethnic background. A
doctor in Taiwan takes the same Hippocratic Oath and follows the same
Declaration of Geneva as a doctor in China does, and it is time for
every doctor in China to stand up for the right of doctors and health
professionals in Taiwan to become “observers” in the WHO.

To refuse to recognize the right of Taiwan to have observer status in
the WHO is to reject the Hippocratic Oath and all that it stands for.

The next flu epidemic is inevitable, as Klaus Stohr, a WHO influenza
expert, stated at an international press conference in Thailand last
year. Stohr noted dramatically that a future flu pandemic could cause
the deaths of an estimated 4 million people worldwide. Other medical
experts, among them Shigeru Omi, the regional director of the WHO’s
Western Pacific Office, suggest that more than 10 million or 20
million deaths may result, and perhaps as many as 100 million.

For doctors in China to say nothing in favor of Taiwan’s WHO observer
status in the face of this global threat is a sad commentary on that
country’s narrow-minded, selfish and unethical state of mind. Before
the next pandemic occurs, it is time for China to put geopolitics
aside and allow Taiwan to enjoy WHO observer status. It would be a
professional courtesy that is long overdue.

Influential medical and health professionals around the world agree
that Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO as an observer represents a
serious threat both to the health of the Taiwanese people and to the
global community in the 21st century.

And, as has been suggested many times by health professionals
supportive of Taiwan’s international status, the steering committee of
the World Health Assembly should call an emergency meeting and accede
to Taiwan’s request to participate as an assembly observer. This must
be done now. Not next year, not in five years’ time, not in 10 years’
time.

The Hippocratic Oath and the Declaration of Geneva demand it.
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