병(兵)의 진료받을 권리

Servicepeople s right to get medical treatment

Clause 3, article 36 in the Constitution says that all people are supposed to get national protection about their health. It means not only that the nation must not infringe on the people s health passively but also that the nation has the duty to establish and implement the policy for the people s health. As Korean citizens, servicepeople are in a special position because they have a special relationship with the nation. So, during the service, they are subject to restriction on their rights in many ways under the Constitution and some specific laws. The Constitution says that the nation must not infringe on their right s fundamental contents, even if, however, they are in a special position. So far, it is true that many people stress the importance of service people s soldierliness. As a result, servicepeople have tolerated their sickness without saying, or if they have the chance to say their sickness when it is very serious, officers would not listen to what they have said with a great attention because of attributes of the armed forces. But servicepeople are the citizens in Korea as well as soldiers. So, the nation has the duty for caring for servicepeople s health. There, of course, can be exceptional cases such as international war and civil war, but at normal times it will be very important for the government to allow servicepeople to get their proper health care service and for national assembly members to produce the law about that as soon a s possible.