thanks to conway for this article... here to share with everyone...
don't just follow blindly, get to know the truth. TC's spirit lies in its wish to provide health care and help to all living beings. The result of the lawsuite focused on the fact it is a misinterpretation. Nevertheless, it does not take away the fact that the doctor refused the treat the patient. Everything is in the past now, but we should remember that TC hospital is the first one in taiwan not requiring deposit, and the the government followed. Despite what the ruling says, the incident that started TC did happen, and it has contributed to countless people in poverty all over taiwan.
Tzu Chi founder not to appeal case
STAFF WRITER
Thursday, Sep 18, 2003,Page 2
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"The wound won't heal if we continue to appeal." |
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Master Cheng Yen, spiritual leader of Tzu Chi Foundation | Lawyers for the Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (·OÀÙ¥\¼w·|) yesterday said that the organization's founder Master Cheng Yen (ÃÒÄYªk®v) had decided not to appeal a civil lawsuit in the "pool of blood" defamation case.
Foundation spokesman Ho Jih-sheng (¦ó¤é¥Í) said that throughout the two-year lawsuit Cheng Yen had never intended to win anything but had tried to communicate with the complainants in the hope of settling out of court.
According to testimony given to the court in the original case, Cheng Yen visited a private clinic in Hualien 37 years ago and saw a pool of blood on the ground. She was told the blood was from an Aboriginal woman named Chen Chiou-en (³¯¬î§u), who had suffered a miscarriage. Chen could not pay an advance payment of NT$8,000 to get treatment and died on the way home.
Cheng Yen has since presented this story many times as her inspiration to establish a hospital that would never reject any patient. But she never mentioned the name of the doctor or clinic involved.
However, the family of Dr. Chuang Ju-kuei (²ø¦¼¶Q), the doctor who sent his patient home for insufficient funds, sued Cheng Yen after her follower Lee Man-mei (§õº¡©f) identified the doctor as the owner of the clinic.
Last month Cheng Yen lost a civil lawsuit and was ordered to pay NT$1.01 million to Chuang.
Earlier this month, an Aboriginal man Chen Wen-chien (³¯¤åÁ¾), who had claimed to be one of the young Aboriginal men who had carried the woman to the clinic 37 years ago, confirmed Cheng Yen's story in a press conference.
Questioning the outcome of the civil case, Ho said that Tzu Chi lawyers had never questioned Chuang's character or medical ethics in public during the lawsuit, yet judges concluded that Chuang had made no mistakes when practicing medicine, thereby finding Cheng Yen at fault in the civil lawsuit.
"The wound won't heal if we continue to appeal," Cheng Yen said on Tuesday night.
Despite the controversial suit coming to an end, Master Shih Chao-hui (ÄÀ¬L¼z) of Buddhist Hongshi Institute said she would work with religious and human-rights groups to erect a monument in Hsinshe (·sªÀ) village of Hualien, the deceased woman's hometown, to commemorate "that tragedy" and express her sincere apologies to the indigenous people. Shih said this case underlines the unfair treatment indigenous people have to suffer.
In response to Cheng Yen's decision not to appeal, the Chuang family's lawyer Lu Sheng-hsien (§f³Ó½å) said yesterday that the family accepted the decision but still believed that the "pool of blood" story was purely fictional.
"Lee told Cheng Yen that the blood had been left by Chen Chiou-en and said publicly that she knew this because she went to Dr. Chuang's clinic a lot. But when she testified in court, she told the judge that she had only gone to the clinic once," Lu said.
When the judge showed Lee a picture of Chen Chiou-en and asked her to identify her, Lee replied that she was sure the woman in the picture was indeed Chen, Lu said.
"The judge was not convinced by Lee's testimony because Lee's reaction was strange. How could she identify someone she had met only once 37 years ago so firmly?" Lu asked.
Lu also quoted the ruling of the Hualien District Court that said that Chen Wen-chien's testimony was full of contradictions.
"All the question marks raised by Lee and Chen Wen-chien's testimonies indicate that the story told by Cheng Yen of the so-called `pool of blood' was entirely fictional," Lu said.
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Revelations boost case of Tzu Chi founder
LATE EVIDENCE: Master Cheng Yen, who was sued for defaming a Hualien doctor, was considering an appeal after key witnesses to her story backed up her claims
By Debby Wu
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003,Page 2
The Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (·OÀÙ¥\¼w·|) was yesterday considering whether to appeal a civil suit regarding a story told many times over the past few decades by Master Cheng Yen (ÃÒÄYªk®v), Tzu Chi's founder, after key character in the story came forward to support Cheng Yen's claims.
According to testimony given to the court in the original case, Cheng Yen visited a private clinic in Hualien 37 years ago and saw a pool of blood on the ground. She was told the blood was from an Aboriginal woman named Chen Chiou-en (³¯¬î§u), who had suffered a miscarriage. Chen could not pay an advance payment of NT$8,000 to get treatment and died on the way home.
Cheng Yen has since presented this story many times as her inspiration to establish a hospital that would never reject any patient. But she never mentioned the name of the doctor involved or clinic.
However, the family of Dr. Chuang Ju-kuei (²ø¦¼¶Q), the doctor in question, sued Cheng Yen after her follower Lee Man-mei (§õº¡©f) identified the doctor as a Dr. Chuang in Fonglin (»ñªL) township, Hualien.
Although Cheng Yen was cleared of the criminal charge of defamation by the Hualien District Court, last month she lost a civil lawsuit and had to pay NT$1.01 million to Chuang.
The court ruled that Cheng Yen's version of the story had damaged Chuang's reputation because she used the word "deposit" to describe the NT$8,000.
On Sunday, Chen's grandfather, Chen Wen-chien (³¯¤åÁ¾), who was one of the people who carried her to the hospital, said that the NT$8,000 was indeed a deposit.
"We carried Li-hsing [Chen's Aboriginal name] for seven or eight hours non-stop, but when we arrived at the clinic in Fonglin, Li-hsing's husband could not pay the deposit and he begged the doctor to save his wife. When I saw Li-hsing's husband come out of the clinic holding his wife and crying, I could never forget that scene," Chen Wen-chien said.
It was not clear why he had not spoken up before.
Chuang's family refused to comment on the revelations.
"We are not willing to comment on this anymore," Chuang's lawyer, Lu Sheng-hsien (§f³Ó½å), said yesterday.
But the Chuang family issued a statement earlier saying that Chuang had devoted himself to helping the Aboriginal people since 1946, much earlier than Tzu Chi, which was established in 1979. But they were glad that "a pool of blood" once again raised the public's attention to the lack of the medical resource in Eastern Taiwan.
"We are still thinking about whether to appeal the case," Tzu Chi spokesman Ho Jih-sheng (¦ó¤é¥Í) said yesterday. Ho said they had received the verdict about 10 days ago and had about a week left to decide whether to appeal.
"We do not mean to cause hostility between the two sides. Master never meant to blame the tragedy on anyone since she never mentioned a name. She just saw one incident and was inspired to improve the medical system to help others," Ho said.
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2003/9/18
TAIPEI, Taiwan, The China Post Staff
Buddhist Master Cheng Yen, leader of Taiwan's biggest charity group, decided yesterday not to appeal a court ruling that she pay NT$1.01 million in compensation to a doctor she is held to have defamed.
Cheng Yen, founder of the Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, said that allowing the controversy ¡X widely referred to the "pool of blood" case ¡X to go on would run against her philosophy of love, giving and tolerance.
"My personal affairs are minor things. Wasting social resources is a much bigger issue. Society needs peace, and the people need calm. Therefore I have decided not to appeal," said Cheng Yen, who has millions of supporters worldwide, in a press statement.
The Hualien District Court last month ruled against Cheng Yen in a civil lawsuit the family of a doctor filed against her over a story the Buddhist master had told about the medical practitioner turning away a poor patient.
The story, which occurred 37 years ago, inspired Cheng Yen to devote herself to charitable works, and she subsequently set up the foundation, plus a university and a hospital.
In the face of the hefty damages, Cheng Yen turned down her supporters' offer to pay the doctor, surnamed Chuang, the NT$1.01 million for her.
She said she and 100 resident followers of her nunnery will raise the money by working overtime daily making extra candles for sale.
The nuns, aged between 30 to 60, work 15 hours a day making candles ¡X selling for NT$5 each ¡X to support the daily expenses for both the nunnery and the foundation, the master said.
They will have to work half an hour more every day, with each producing about 10 extra candles to cover the damages, she said, estimating that they may need 200 days to raise the sum.
The 86-year-old doctor's children said they were glad the case had come to an end, saving both sides from further harm.
The father, who has been bed-ridden since suffering a stroke, was relieved to hear Cheng Yen's decision, said the doctor's daughter, Chuang Hsiu-fang.
She said they filed the lawsuit in order to prevent the family from having to live with the specter of the story, and they said they will donate all NT$1.01 million to charity.
The row dates back 37 years, when Cheng Yen saw a pool of blood on the floor of a Hualien clinic, and she was told that it belonged to a woman, an aboriginal named Chen Chiou-yen, who was suffering a miscarriage.
The woman was turned away by the clinic because she could not afford a NT$8,000 deposit, and she died later, according to Cheng Yen's version of the story.
Often citing the story as her inspiration to charitable works, Cheng Yen had never revealed the name of the doctor or the clinic.
Two years ago a woman, Lee Man-mei, who told Cheng Yen about the aboriginal woman's ordeal, publicly identified Chuang as the doctor, whose family then filed a libel suit against both.
The court held that Cheng Yen had misquoted Lee, who only had told the master that the aboriginal woman "went off because she did not have NT$8,000," without explicitly saying she was refused treatment. | 
