OPINION:
There are amendments to the U.S. Constitution that address incapacity of the president while in office. However, without means to address the health of the candidate, those measures are insufficient. Two approaches can go a long way toward assuring the American people and the world of the medical fitness of a presidential candidate.
The first is to set an upper limit on the age at which a person may run for the presidency. Already a candidate must be at least 35 years old when elected to the office — but upward of that there is no limit, and there should be.
Americans are living longer today. Centenarians are no longer a novelty. But they are subject to normal mental and physical decline. Second, candidates should be required to submit a medical history for review by an established, objective, highly qualified and well-respected panel of three medical experts. The candidate should also submit to a thorough physical examination, with the results also being submitted to the panel.
The privacy of the candidate should be respected; if conditions which disclose incapacity or the serious possibility of such is determined, the candidate should have the choice of withdrawing or instead having the results made public through release of a statement by the physicians.
Without such approach, an ailing candidate could be elected with a preplanned “abdication” to follow in favor of the vice president. That would be committing a fraud on the citizenry, and it would defeat the will of the people and abuse the system of presidential succession.
HESSIE L. HARRIS
Silver Spring, Md.
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