Should a criminal record bar someone from becoming a doctor? Swedes are debating this after learning that a neo-Nazi convicted murderer has been admitted twice to leading Swedish medical schools. Thirty-three-year-old Karl Helge Hampus Svensson was paroled after 6½ years of an 11-year sentence for killing a trade union worker. While he was in prison, he did high school studies.

Then, while he was still on parole, he was admitted to the medical school of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. When the embarrassed authorities discovered his past, they managed to dislodge him by claiming that he had falsified his high school records. Nothing daunted, Mr Svensson then applied and was admitted to the University of Uppsala.

The Swedish public was scandalised when news of this emerged in the press. However, the case raised difficult questions. Swedish medical schools are not allowed to conduct background checks on applicants. Since not all of the facts have emerged, it is not clear whether he was even asked about the 6½ year gap in his CV. In the US, by contrast, a standard application form poses questions about convictions and military discharge history.

The Swedish medical licensing agency will not allow Mr. Svensson to practice as a doctor even if he qualifies. But because its jurisdiction excludes universities, the medical school now has to decide whether it should inform patients about his past.

According the New York Times, Swedish medical students are divided about whether a convicted murderer should be allowed to practice medicine. Some say that it should be assumed that he has reformed; others that he could pose a risk to patients and colleagues, given his political sympathies. (One of the numerous comments in the Times pointed out that surgeons and criminals share many anti-social personality traits.) ~ New York Times, Mar 24