The Health and Welfare Ministry aims to amend laws banning blind and deaf people from becoming doctors, dentists or nurses, in line with advisory panel recommendations submitted Tuesday, ministry officials said.
The ministry plans to submit amendments to the Medical Practitioner Law, the Dental Practitioner Law and the nurse law to the Diet during its 150-day regular session convening in January. It hopes the revisions will take effect in fiscal 2002, which starts April 1 that year, they said.
The three laws currently stipulate that the government deny medical, dental or nurse licenses to people who are blind, deaf or dumb. In its final report worked out Tuesday, the panel of medical experts recommended a broader wording of the laws, with license restrictions being imposed on "people who will have difficulty carrying out practices due to a physical or mental disorder."