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Should an overwight be admitted to a nursing program?
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Snea Thinsan
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May 31, 2003 12:26 PDT
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Dear Professors and Friends,
Should an overwight be admitted to a nursing program?
A Thai girl had passed the written extrance examination to study Nursing
in a prestigious university, but later was denied admission because of
her 96-kilogram body! What do you think?
See details below:
HUMAN RIGHTS: Student's case irks activists
Published on Jun 1, 2003
Nursing school slammed over controversial decision to reject overweight
trainee
Human-rights advocates yesterday urged Mahidol University's nursing
school to re-consider its decision to reject Rosukhon Oransetakul as a
nursing student because she is overweight.
Senator Wallop Tungananurak - chairman of the Senate committee on women,
children and youth - said the Ministry of University Affairs should
allow her to study since she had already passed the nursing school's
entrance examination.
Rosukhon, 18, was denied a seat at the school because the admission
committee considered her weight of 96 kilograms made her unfit to work
as a nurse.
Wallop said the incident showed that some institutions adopt rules and
regulations that run counter to the Constitution, which protects every
citizen's basic human rights.
As a result, these rules and regulations need to be amended, he said.
"It doesn't make sense to tell the girl to lose weight and take the exam
again next year. Why not let her study and then lose weight later,"
Wallop said, adding that it is unreasonable for the school to argue that
the principle of human rights would downgrade the quality of its
professional training.
Another human-rights advocate, senator Montri Sintawi- chai, said: "I
want to see Rosukhon continue fighting for her rights. Being overweight
shouldn't be used as the basis barring her from being a nurse. This
practice is discriminatory. The school should amend its rules and
regulations."
In fact, the girl should be praised for speaking up, he added.
Jade Donavanik, Rosukhon's legal counsellor, said there would be further
attempts to get the school to reconsider its decision so that she can
pursue her chosen course of study.
Jade said if the school still stood by its decision, however, Rosukhon
would likely petition her case before the Administrative Court and the
National Human Rights Commission.
"The university shouldn't use weight as the key factor in making its
admission decision. If the university insists that being overweight is
not admissible, it should clearly state so in its application form," the
legal adviser added.
Pliporn Sanithikul,
Piyanuch Tamnukasetchai
THE NATION
Source:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.news.php3?clid=2&theme=A&usrsess=1&id=14813
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