The Presidential Race and Health Records

[dragon wench]

I just caught this while surfing:

Presidential health: "Need to know" is subjective : Scientific American Blog

How much do voters need to know about a presidential candidate's health, and what information should politicians be obligated to share?

The New York Times takes an in-depth look at those questions today, concluding that candidates are sharing less medical information now than in some recent elections, despite candidates' previous health concerns. According to the article, the presidential and vice presidential candidates have only released limited and, in the case of GOP veep pick Sarah Palin, no medical records to date.

We know from a May review of some of John McCain's medical records and from previous reports that the Arizona senator has battled the most deadly form of skin cancer melanoma. His physician says McCain, who at 72 would be the oldest man ever sworn into a first term as president, has not displayed any memory problems, but she has not said whether her patient has undergone cognitive tests.

Democrat Barack Obama in May released an undated one-page letter from his doctor to the media (based on regular exams since March 1987) stating that the Illinois senator, 47, was in "excellent health." The letter noted that Obama had used the nicotine gum Nicorette (to stem his nicotine craving) "with success," but it did not say whether Obama, a longtime smoker, had kicked the habit. Obama said he stopped smoking last year when he launched his presidential campaign but admitted that he has "bummed" smokes since then.

Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, 65, suffered a near-fatal aneurysm—a brain bleed—20 years ago. But it's unknown whether he has had recent brain imaging scans or evaluations to detect possible new aneurysms; people who have suffered Biden's type of aneurysm are believed to have a 5 percent or less chance of developing another one. Biden today released 49 pages of medical records that indicated he did not have any aneurysm symptoms but did not reveal whether or not he had undergone recent brain scans, the Associated Press reports. The newly released documents show that he did not have any heart disease when checked two years ago, although he did suffer one or two episodes of an irregular heartbeat. The AP says that he takes a statin drug to keep his cholesterol in the healthy range, and that he has an enlarged prostate that isn't cancerous, a condition the Times noted this morning.

Palin's camp refused to release any medical information to the Times.

The author of today's Times article, Larry Altman, a physician who has been covering presidential health for 36 years, reported that he was denied access to the 1,200 pages of medical records that McCain released in May to a select group of other reporters; he said that he was shut out after an editorial critical of the senator appeared in his newspaper.

Altman told the Columbia Journalism Review in June that the public has a right to know about the health of candidates they are electing to serve them. "In the past, White House physicians have been known to lie; candidates for president or nominees have been known to evade the truth, distort the facts, or lie," Altman told CJR.

"You’ve got Woodrow Wilson with a stroke and his wife allegedly running the affairs of the country; you’ve got Franklin Roosevelt who may or may not have been told how deathly ill he was in his last term, and certainly nothing was told to the country about it; you’ve got [John F.] Kennedy every which way not acknowledging that he had Addison’s disease (a disorder in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough cortisol or, in some cases, the hormone aldosterone; it can lead to life-threatening low blood glucose and high potassium levels); you had [Thomas] Eagleton who had to leave the [Democratic] ticket [as veep] in ‘72, because he didn’t tell [George] McGovern about his past history of electric-shock therapy and depression; and there was [Paul] Tsongas in [1992] and the fact that he had a recurrence after they had maintained that he was cured of cancer. I think all of those, collectively, led to the public to want to know more about the health of the people who were going to run their country."

(For more on those presidents' medical battles, see this September piece by NYU's Scienceline.)

The question of candidate health has gained currency in the past few weeks in the wake of a petition signed by more than 2,700 doctors demanding that McCain release all of his health records. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald, a Democratic contributor, was behind the petition.

Among candidates who have made themselves and their doctors available to the media include former President George H. Bush, Bob Dole, Al Gore and John Kerry.

Altman cites President Ronald Reagan – who is McCain's political idol – as an example of openness. He reports that during the 1980 election, Reagan, then 69, allowed his doctors to be interviewed and answered all of Altman's questions, including what he would do "if he became senile as president." His response, writes Altman: "Resign."

Now... I have very conflicted feelings on the above issue, and I don't really think this sort of thing is specific to whether or not one is American, because, let's face it, US elections have a significant impact on the world at large..

On the one hand, like many others, I'm horrified by the prospect of McCain, if elected, dying in office... The thought of Sarah Palin having access to the nuclear launch codes is truly frightening...
However, I also strongly believe in the right to personal privacy, and I can't help but feel that using medical records as a measure of whether or not somebody is fit for public office ventures into extremely slippery territory...

Thoughts?

[Crenshinibon]

I believe I read somewhere that health records stated that McCain was in perfect health.

Also, don't forget that we have the Congress, which limits the president's power. Nearly, if not all, decisions made by the president must be approved by two thirds of Congress vote as well, and with that, they can override any decision, including laws or the war.

[penguin_king]

i heard somewhere that he has skin cancer and has only been given a few more years.

i know its sad but is there really any point in him running for president if this is true?

[Moonbiter]

It's quite a strange thing when some nations seem adamant to elect a person way past his/hers retirement age as a leader. My dad used to say in the 80s: "Thank god they elected a person who's experienced war, so they won't start a new one." Good one, dad! Granted, the push Reagan/Gorbachev/Yeltsin made towards global disarmament in the late 80s was a good one, based upon their experiences with total war, but they sort of forgot the rest. John McCain should be on a balcony in Fort Lauderdale wearing horrible Bermuda-shorts, sipping Pink Gin through a drink that looks like a fruit basket. Here he is, running for president. Go figure!

[rmemmett84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by penguin_king i heard somewhere that he has skin cancer and has only been given a few more years. i know its sad but is there really any point in him running for president if this is true?

Yeah I think it was in a Michael Moore film. Please if that were true everyone would know. Besides, the real question is what is wrong with Joe Biden that his hair plugs didn't take? Will hair not stick on the skin of devil spawn?

[Vicsun]

edit: never mind