by Patrick Corcoran

Created on: June 14, 2008

The question put forth is, "Should Presidential candidates be required to disclose their health records?"
Some say the answer to that is, "Yes", it's vital to our national security. But it presents another question. "To whom should they reveal it?"
Let's deal with the "Yes" answer first.
Being the President of the Unites States is without a doubt a high-pressure position. The person in that spot has to be on their "A' game" all of the time. In this present presidential campaign we have heard over and over about the telephone call at three A.M. If the president was someone who had to be constantly on pain or sleep medication, could the person on the other end in that situation be told to call back later? Of course not, that's why the president has to be alert when they are awake and easily aroused when awakened in the middle of their sleep. Some medications definitely interfere with the thought process. If the bottle says, "Dont operate heavy machinery", you probably shouldn't be making decisions to bomb a country either.

This doesn't mean that a person who is confined to a wheelchair or has some other physical handicap can't be president. Wearing a hearing aid or eyeglasses would not cause exclusion either. But the candidate cannot have a mental handicap nor have to be in a situation where chemicals could cause the brain to not be sharp. After all, the person in the Oval Office is the leader of the Free World. Therefore, taking heavy doses of pain or sleep medication on a vey long term basis should exclude the candidate from the position of president. If the situation occurrs after being elected there are provisions in our constitution for when the president can't fullfill his or her duty. In most cases they would be temporary situations when the vice president steps in, such as an out-patient procedure which has happened at least once to all of our modern day presidents.
We know now that President John F. Kennedy was hampered by his medical conditions. The Atlantic Monthly reported in 2002 that he had Addison's disease and a bad back.
So, yes, presidential candidates should disclose their medical records, but that leads us to our other question. Who should get to see those records? It isn't really necessary that the entire world have a look at them but someone should. Could Congress appoint a team of Physicians to examine every candidate? Or should a bi-partisan committee make the recommendation? There are sure to be problems with these scenarios too.
To re-cap, an argument can be made that the presidential candidates should reveal their health records with the purpose of possible exclusion from the job. The real question is, who gets to see it and who makes the decision?

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