A Melbourne-based Christian doctor has been found engaging in “professional misconduct” after sharing and writing—sometimes crudely—online content reflective of conservative beliefs.
Dr. Jareth Kok was reported to the Victorian Medical Board via a “confidential notification,” where the Medical Board of Australia later filed the action against him at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
VCAT considered 12 years’ worth of social media posts by Kok from 2010 and 2021.
Of these posts, 54 out of 85 were considered to have “denigrated, demeaned or slurred” medical professionals or persons who either provide abortion treatment, or dealt with gender dysphoria among other allegations.
He was also accused of expressing negative views towards the LGBT community and instigating violent statements towards a racial group. Further, VCAT found he legitimised vaccine hesitancy rhetoric.
Kok, who has 15 years’ experience in the medical field and was first suspended six years ago in 2019, has had to take up a new career to keep providing for his family.
What Did Kok Post?
Some of the social media posts highlighted in Medical Board of Australia v Dr Jereth Kok, include views against abortion, his support of traditional family structures, and re-sharing posts by satirical conservative website, The Babylon Bee, on gender fluidity issues.One such post shared by Kok was titled, “Instead of Traditional Warfare, Chinese Military Will Now be Trained to Shout Wrong Pronouns at American Troops.”
In a separate online post, Kok remarked that he did not view homosexuality as a “sin in itself,” but believed a homosexual orientation could be addressed with therapy if a Christian who identified as gay wanted to lead a heterosexual life.
One contentious post saw Kok write, “Soon, our civilisations will be vanquished, and the Earth will be overrun by Black people. The solution is clear: we must take ‘family planning’ to poor countries and exterminate them before it is too late!”
Views on Abortion
Claims that Kok had “denigrated, demeaned and slurred” practitioners carrying out medical abortion were found due to the doctor’s comments that the practice was “slaughter.”“The Tribunal is comfortably satisfied that the post was inconsistent with the 2014 Code of Conduct ... being that Dr. Kok by this post failed to behave professionally and courteously to other medical practitioners, by implying they slaughtered human beings,” the VCAT decision read.
In his evidence, Kok said he should not have referred to abortion as slaughter, rather as “a human being who had their life ended by abortion.”
The Tribunal was, however, accepting of some of Kok’s advice to Christians on contraception.
Vaccine Claims
VCAT also said Kok’s references to the COVID-19 vaccine being made from “body parts” was inaccurate because while the AstraZeneca vaccine was developed using HEK-293A cells, and while Pfizer and Spikevax were tested in human cell lines, the cells were not necessary for the manufacture of the vaccines.HEK-293 cells were derived from the kidneys of a single aborted fetus in the 1970s, with those cells being made “immortal” through the addition of an adenovirus.
Promotion of Gender Transition Practices ‘Reckless’: Kok
In giving evidence, Kok told the Tribunal he was of the belief that there were only two sexes correlating to the two genders.“Throughout my medical training and my medical career, it would have been absurd to entertain such ideas as men having periods and pap smears, pregnancy in men, and women requiring prostate examinations,” he said.
“I have no memory of such things ever being mentioned in a professional setting.”
Kok first gained awareness when gender transitioning became more common, especially in children.
“I instinctively saw this as reckless, ideologically-driven, unscientific and harmful,” he said.
“On bioethics grounds, I considered it unethical that doctors would medicate and perform major surgery on people where there is no physical pathology.”
Former Deputy PM Weighs In
Former Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson weighed in on the decision.“A disturbing decision from VCAT—one that endorses the censorship of political and religious speech, and even the sharing of satire,” he wrote on social media.
Legal Alliance Considering Appeal, Concerned About Free Speech
The Human Rights Law Alliance (HRLA), representing Kok, said VCAT’s decision is considering an appeals, which could delay an ultimate finding in Kok’s case for years.The body was primarily concerned about the precedent for freedom of speech in Australia.
It signals a “concerning expansion of regulatory power into areas of personal belief, political expression, and religious conviction,” the HRLA said in a statement.
Family First Says Authorities Overreacted
Leader of the Christian-aligned Family First political party Lyle Shelton released a statement condemning the VCAT decision.“Dr. Kok has harmed no patient,” Shelton said in a statement.
“His only ‘crime’ was to express his views online—many of them satirical or Christian in nature—and for that, he has been punished with the loss of his medical career.
“VCAT found that Dr. Kok’s posts—on topics like human rights for unborn babies, gender ideology, and COVID policies—were ‘disrespectful’ and ‘not sufficiently balanced,’ despite acknowledging that many were political or religious in nature, and unrelated to his clinical practice,” Shelton said.
The former head of the Australian Christian Lobby questioned whether “disrespect” and “lack of balance” on social media was enough grounds for a doctor to “have his career ruined?”
