How do amputees point?
People who have lost one or both arms have the same civil rights as everyone else, have the same needs to transact in normal daily life and social areas, and are still issued ID cards and citizen identification cards.
According to regulations, there are many administrative and judicial documents that citizens must sign or fingerprint. In many cases, the person whose name is on the document must fingerprint multiple fingers, such as the ID card, citizen identification card, or when notarizing transaction documents, mortgages, or bank loans.
That causes no small difficulty for those who have lost their arms, and there are no regulations for people who have lost both arms.
 |
| These leprosy patients all have lost their fingers, and currently there are no regulations for these people when completing paperwork that requires fingerprints - Photo: PSNGÂN |
"Giving up" with people with two amputated arms
In terms of law, a person's will expressed on a document or paper is usually in the form of writing or signature. In case of failure to sign, the mark is only used to record the will on the document of an individual. The mark is sometimes used as a substitute for signing, but in some cases it is used simultaneously with signing.
Ms. Nguyen Bich Thuy - an expert from the Justice Department of Dien Khanh district - said that during a time when she was on duty at the district's "one-stop" department, she received a request for guidance from a man who had lost a hand and could not sign or point.
After checking and researching, Ms. Thuy advised the Justice Department of Dien Khanh district to respond and guide this citizen.
According to the 2014 Notary Law, fingerprints can be used instead of signatures in cases where the person requesting notarization, the witness, or the interpreter cannot sign due to disability or inability to sign. Fingerprinting, according to general regulations, is done using the right index finger. However, for people who have lost a finger, the Dien Khanh District Justice Department believes that if the right hand is lost, the fingerprint can be used with the index finger of the left hand. If the index finger of the left hand still cannot be used, then the fingerprint can be used with another finger. It must be clearly stated which finger and which hand the fingerprint is used with.
The Law on Notarization also clearly states that fingerprinting can be performed simultaneously with signing in the following cases: notarization of wills, notarization at the request of the person requesting notarization, and the notary finds it necessary to protect the rights of the person requesting notarization.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhu Huong - Head of the Central Notary Office (Nha Trang), when making transactions, notaries always require identification papers and ID cards of the people involved. The requirement to take fingerprints when notarizing is to check and compare with the fingerprints in the ID card to determine whether the correct person and property owner are named in those documents.
For those who have lost both arms and all fingers, where can they get fingerprints for identification and verification? In response to this question, Ms. Thuy and Ms. Huong both said that they did not know the specific regulations on how to handle this.
Still can make ID
According to Lieutenant Colonel Cao Thi Doan - Deputy Head of the Administrative Police Department for Social Order (PC64) of Khanh Hoa Provincial Police, people who have lost one or both arms have the same civil rights as everyone else, and have the need to transact in normal daily life and social areas.
The general rule when making an ID card is that the application form (record) clearly states that all 10 fingers must be fingerprinted, while the ID card states that the fingerprints of both the left and right index fingers must be taken.
Lieutenant Colonel Doan added that it must be done this way because normally when working, people often use and leave fingerprints of the index fingers, so it is regulated as mentioned above.
In the case of amputated fingers or index fingers, according to Lieutenant Colonel Doan, when making an ID card, in the application form and on the ID card, a cross must be marked in the box specifying the lost fingerprint.
Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan Anh - Deputy Head of the General Staff Team PC64 of Khanh Hoa Provincial Police - said that in reality, there are many people who have lost fingers or index fingers but are still able to get ID cards.
In these cases, the ID card does not have the index finger fingerprint but still records the individual's identification mark.
