Should Harris and Trump disclose details of their medical conditions to voters?

Medical reports for US presidential candidates and even presidents are sensitive topics that raise many discussions in the political arena.

President Joe Biden’s health status was a hot issue in his 2024 election campaign before he decided to withdraw from this election marathon.

As the November 5 poll approaches, the health status of the candidates will become a topic of discussion, reflecting public interest in the issue of health and the ability to perform presidential duties.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamla Harris, released a message from her doctor on Saturday, saying that she is in good health and can maintain the high position.

Harris (59 years old) is competing with Trump (78 years old) for the presidency of the United States. A Harris aide said the medical information released was intended to clarify Trump’s refusal to do so.

Harris’ recent report on her health raised questions about whether voters should know about candidates’ health. Should public health be part of assessing a candidate’s ability to hold office?

In an information-controlled world, publishing applicants’ medical records has become a sign of seriousness and transparency. However, disclosure of certain medical information may be considered an invasion of personal privacy.

President Biden’s health condition was a hot topic during the election campaigns, and he later decided to withdraw.

Many American institutes and universities have studied this topic and thought about how much we should know about the health of candidates, how this affects our democracy, and more importantly, whether the health status is published than an ethical issue?

The Boston University School of Law considered this issue thirty years ago, publishing a report at the time titled Presidential Health, Presidential Candidates, and the Public’s Right to Know.

The report says that the things we want to know about the health of presidents and presidential candidates tell us more about ourselves than they do about them;

The publication of these “reasonable” medical reports is acceptable, according to the report, and may not be harmful, but “we must at least show some respect for medical privacy.” by setting expectations. “

There is no simple legal or procedural rule that can guarantee this, according to the report, which showed that the twenty-fifth amendment to the US Constitution provides a good set of procedures which we can apply to deal with the temporary inability of leadership.

The report says that before the presidential elections, presidents must disclose details of their injuries and illnesses, but this cannot be an excuse for “the curiosity driven by what he said as the ‘yellow press’ about the private medical. information about the presidential candidates.”

Every election season, Americans ask the same question: How much information about a presidential candidate’s health does the public have a right to know? “Medical confidentiality is a central legal and ethical principle that doctors should not disclose private medical information to persons not involved in the patient’s care without the patient’s consent,” the report states that the doctor-patient relationship is confidential, and breach of confidentiality is considered unethical “unless necessary to protect public health”.

There are exceptions to this rule for presidents or presidential candidates. This does not mean, according to the report, that the president’s “doctors” misled the public about the president’s health. However, many did and it caused “a state of anxiety among “public,” as happened with the health status of Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, John Kennedy, and Reagan, as presidents were not always happy with information released by their doctors even when they gave their consent published.

The study published by Boston University also showed that presidential campaigns do not focus on the present, but they care about the future, and this is what makes the health status the applicant is a “problem.” He says, “Regardless of the opinions about the privacy of the candidates, the health of the president is a more legitimate matter of public concern than the health of candidates for this office.”

But she says that this does not mean that a president’s medical records should be regularly available to the public, but that appropriate and accurate information should be provided when a president becomes ill or has to injure

Rumors spread quickly when facts are not available.

Although doctors cannot accurately predict how a candidate’s health condition will affect his or her ability to perform political duties, the public can take into account their perceptions of the likelihood of death or incapacity in office. .

For example, President Eisenhower had to decide whether to run for a second term after suffering a heart attack. His famous medical adviser, Paul Dudley White, found himself in a position that could have given him veto power over the decision if he had said publicly that Eisenhower should not run for office. re-elected because of his health.

At first White tried to persuade Eisenhower not to run, but the decision was up to the president.

In another case, the first obvious signs of bladder cancer were not detected in former Vice President Hubert Humphrey until 1969, after he lost the 1968 presidential election to Richard Nixon. It was suggested that if the methods had been available, the cancer would have been detected earlier and he would have been eliminated from the presidential race.

Revealing a candidate’s health status is a tool to convince voters that he or she is the best fit for the job

Now, the Democratic candidate Camilla Harris (59 years old) competes with Trump (78 years old) for the presidency of the United States. The Harris campaign is keen to emphasize the former president’s age since he became the oldest candidate in the race after President Joe Biden (81 years old) resigned after a poor performance in a debate against Trump.

The two presidential candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties are locked in a tight race.

Reuters says Harris’ campaign hopes it will help highlight the contrast between her relative youth and presence of mind with Trump’s old age and deviant tendencies, as well as the differences in the transparency between the two, to convince voters who have not settled yet. candidate she is most suitable for the job.