A ruling party lawmaker is pushing for a bill that would that would ban doctors convicted of a second criminal offense from practicing again.

Rep. Kwon Chil-seung of the Democratic Party of Korea, quoting National Police Agency data from 2010-2018, said at least 848 doctors were arrested for sexual assault or harassment and 37 for murder over the nine-year period. But all of them kept their medical licenses, with only five suspended from practice.

“It is already extremely hard for a doctor to lose his or her license in Korea. But those who do can easily apply for another one,” he said over the phone. “I think I speak for most people when I say this needs to change.”

Last year, Kwon proposed a similar bill seeking to prohibit doctors convicted of violent crimes such as sexual assault, murder and robbery from practicing medicine and posting their personal information for public access.

“Under the current law, a doctor’s license is taken away only for violations of medical laws -- like performing an abortion or deliberately misdiagnosing a patient,” he said. “The bill intends to broaden the scope of criminal conduct liable for revocation.”

Kwon said that the chances of the bill’s success this time were “considerably high,” adding that he hoped to rally support from the Democratic Party majority legislature.

“The last parliament failed to pass the bill. Now, as a member of the parliamentary committee for health and welfare, I shoulder a greater responsibility to finally have the bill passed into law,” he said.

At the time of the bill’s proposal, the Ministry of Health and Welfare raised a cautious objection, saying that such revisions to the laws “require careful consideration.”

Attorney Jung Yi-won, who specializes in medical disputes, said legalizing public disclosure of doctors’ criminal records, which are usually considered confidential, “could be tricky.” “Some might argue such measures should be reserved for the country’s worst offenders,” he said.

Jung added the specifics of the laws regarding medical licensing need “fine tuning,” at the least. Some practices are punished too harshly, he said.

Medical laws say the Minister of Health and Welfare holds the authority to suspend medical licenses for “degrading the dignity of the medical profession,” among others. Engaging in unethical medical practices qualifies as one of them.

The legally identified instances of unethical medical practice include prescribing or administering narcotics; sexually assaulting or harassing patients; using unauthorized drugs; and performing abortions.

“Our laws fail to recognize that there are necessary abortions -- medically or otherwise,” Jung said. “Medical professionals can be penalized for terminating pregnancies even when they are medically warranted and requested by the patient.”

Another attorney specializing in medical laws, Dr. Park Ho-kyun, said the bill’s passage was “long overdue.”

“There are only about 15 crimes stipulated by the medical laws that can result in revocation of a doctor’s license. But what about tens of thousands of other criminal convictions?” he said.

“Even if the crime is seemingly unrelated to professional competence, deficiency in moral character may just well be an appropriate cause for denying licensure.”

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)