Constitutional Court upholds law for blind masseuses

By Kim Boram
SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Yonhap) -- The Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld South
Korea's medical law which grants massage licenses exclusively to the blind,
rejecting complaints that the law violates the right to choose one's own
profession.
There has been heated debate over whether the affirmative action measure, meant
to safeguard employment for the visually impaired, infringes on the occupational
freedom of the non-blind.
"The law is designed for the blind, to protect their right to seek a better life
and to help them live happy lives," said the court in its ruling. "It provides an
opportunity for the blind, who have a better sense of touch, to participate in
vocational activities."
Under the current law, the government issues massage permits to those blind
people who undertake two-year training courses or graduate from special massage
schools.
The court noted that the massage profession is the only one available for the
visually disabled, who are otherwise at a disadvantage in the nation's welfare
system, and that it is necessary to give preferential treatment in terms of
substantive equality.
The same court in 2006 ruled that an older law restricting massage licenses to
the blind was unconstitutional and violated non-blind citizens' rights to
employment.
That ruling prompted hundreds of blind masseuses to rally against the decision,
with one protester attempting suicide. The group argued that the issue was a
matter of life and death for them.
The National Assembly promptly offset the court's decision by legislating a
revised law that again restricted masseuse permits to the blind only.
According to welfare ministry data, 15,000 out of some 216,000 blind people
across the country are employed in massage parlors, and are virtually shut out of
other career options.
The Human Rights Commission had submitted its opinion to the Constitutional Court
in August that the blinds' right to live is a more urgent problem than the
non-blinds' right to freely choose their occupation.