Preliminary communication
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE PRESIDENT HAS CANCER
Stjepan Orešković
; Medical Faculty, Zagreb
Abstract
Based on Elias' theory of civilization we have analyzed the relation
of contemporary communities regarding the right of
public personalities (the president of a country) to the privacy of
information concerning their health. What is the attitude of the
doctor to contemporary bioethical principles? The answer to this
question has been sought for in a comparative cross-national
analysis of illnesses of the French president Francois Mitterand,
the German chancellor Helmut Kohl and a few presidentiai candidates
and presidents of the United States (Bob Dole, Dwight
Eisenhower, T.D. Roosevelt, J.E Kennedy ...) The patterns of revealing
medical secrets in cases of leading statesmen are recognizable:
1. Retrospective studies of illnesses of leading politicians
(illnesses, diagnoses, therapy, causes of death - studies of the illness
and death of Francois Mitterand and Hubert Humphrey). 2.
Ad hoc statements of hazardous health conditions (the attack on
Ronald Reagan, B. Jelcin's heart attack, H. Kohl's prostate gland
surgery) 3. Prognoses of the expected health condition of presidentiai
candidates serving as a source of information for voters at
the oncoming presidentiai elections (Bob Dole, Bill Clinton). The
study of described cases indicates that the conduct of doctors in
revealing statesmen's health secrets does not fit into the medical
deontology codex, nor does it follow the bioethical recommendations
of the World Health Organization.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
31933
URI
Publication date:
1.5.1996.
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