Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Tuesday he hopes Taiwan's designation in the World Medical Association (WMA) can be changed to the "Taiwan Medical Association."
Chen made the appeal while meeting with WMA Secretary-General and Chief Executive Delon Human, who arrived in Taipei Monday for a goodwill visit.
Taiwan is now designated as the "Chinese Medical Association Taipei" in the World Medical Association -- the global representative body of physicians.
Chen said he hopes Taiwan's designation in the WMA can be converted to the Taiwan Medical Association to signify Taiwan's separate identity from China. "We hope you can help us realize this goal," Chen told his guest.
Praising Human as one of Taiwan's best friends, Chen further asked Human to help Taiwan join the World Health Organization (WHO) as an observer in two years.
Chen said Taiwan's exclusion from the WHO is a hole in the global disease control network. "Diseases know no borders. The WHO should admit Taiwan to make its global health care and disease control network complete and effective," Chen said.
The president further said that joining the WHO is not Taiwan's only policy goal. "Our ultimate goal is to contribute more to world health and medical services, particularly to cooperate with medically advanced European Union countries and the United States to assist African and Latin American nations in improving health care and medical services as well as resolving certain health problems, such as AIDS prevention, " Chen said, adding that Taiwan also hopes to strengthen medical cooperation with South Africa and the World Medical Association.
For his part, Human, a South African physician, said he fully understands that a lack of social justice could lead to deaths of numerous innocent people because he himself has witnessed many tragedies during his country's apartheid period. "I had deep feelings seeing Taiwan's plight when severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) gripped the island in the spring of 2003," Human said, adding that he will do his utmost to help Taiwan obtain WHO observer status.