Doctor Cha makers issues apology for insensitive portrayal of Crohn's disease

On April 10, the production team of Doctor Cha released a statement apologizing for their problematic portrayal of Crohn’s disease to its viewers. In episode 7 of the show released on May 6, 2023, the poor choice of words used to describe a Crohn’s patient was heavily criticized by viewers.

The episode used words such as “a terrible disease” and even claimed that it was genetic. The young patient was also made to witness his family members say negative things about the disease. As per news outlet TV Report on May 9, South Korean viewers had commented on a bulletin board that they were hurt by the dialogues.

The comments seemed to have snowballed, prompting JTBC, the network channel that airs Doctor Cha, to issue a statement the very next day. In their statement, the show’s production crew apologized for hurting the sentiments of people and their families who were suffering from Crohn’s disease. They acknowledged that their research was insufficient and that the dialogs lacked medical expertise.

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Production team of Doctor Cha addresses the Crohn’s disease controversy and apologizes

On May 9, a South Korean news outlet reported that the viewers of Doctor Cha were unhappy with the broadcast of episode 7. The episode introduced a patient with Crohn’s disease. Although it seemed to aim at showcasing the difficulties of the patient, the plan backfired on the show’s production team.

Crohn’s disease is a type of IBD, aka inflammatory bowel disease. It affects the lining of the digestive tract which in turn can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, and other things.

In Doctor Cha episode 7, the patient’s family was seen calling the disease “terrible” and “genetic.” While the former painted a negative picture, the latter was factually incorrect. The inheritance of Crohn’s disease being genetic is still unclear. Viewers, especially people who had their loved ones suffering from Crohn’s disease, found the choice of words extremely poor.

Some comments of the viewers, as per Koreaboo, were:

“If you don’t know about the disease, don’t write it”

“If it’s not a medical drama, you should remove the word ‘doctor’ from the title.”

“My child has Crohn’s Disease. Why are you making my kid who was doing well feel pessimistic?”

A day after it made headlines, on May 10, JTBC’s production team issued an apology for the same.

“This is the production team of JTBC's 'Doctor Cha Jeong-sook'. We would like to thank the viewers who love and watch 'Doctor Cha Jeong-sook', and apologize for hurting the patients and their families with the episode of a specific disease that aired in episode 7 on May 6th.

The episode was intended to deal with a specific case of a patient with moderate chronic complications among the symptoms of Crohn's disease, but the explanation that it was not a typical Crohn's disease case was insufficient during the content development process.”

The production team added that the dialogs were made without medical expertise but it wasn’t their intention to foster a negative view of the disease.

“Careful attention was not paid to the fact that lines spoken by characters without medical expertise with the intention of driving patients could foster negative perceptions of certain diseases. The production team of 'Doctor Cha Jeong-sook' has no intention of lightly dealing with the pain and depression of patients who are struggling with the disease. Thank you.”

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Meanwhile, Doctor Cha stars the famous singer-actor Uhm Jung-hwa in the lead role as Cha Jeong-suk, a full-time housewife who returns to her medical career after twenty years. It airs every Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 pm KST on JTBC. The drama is also available on Netflix and TVING in select regions.