Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-15
Doctor to Doctor

Inc W play QCtll dONOCdOC
to DR.. Charles K. Bush's Rx
for presidential disability.
While admitting the dubious
wisdom of permitting the
President, the Vice President
or the cabinet to make a
proper judicial certification
of de facto inability to dis
charge the paramount powers
and duties of the presidency,
DR.. Bush would delegate such
plenary power and authority
to a medical council. This
supreme medical tribunal
would have jurisdiction in
qualifying or disquali1ying
competent performance by
all top-echelon offceholders.
This supreme medical coun-
Gil would include all the top
medical brass of the Army,
Navy, Air Force, Public
Health and five presidents of
national medical societies or
competent clinicians appoint
ed by them.
DR.. Bush apparently for
gets a similar scheme was
used and found wanting in
defining presidential fitness
and competence prior to the
last election. The top medical
brass of the Army certified
that a former 65-year-old
general, who had been in SUI
pren1e command prior to two
authenticated and prolonged
spells of catastrophe illness,
was competent to serve with
maximal efficiency for an
other five to ten years. This
medical board discarded its
own standards of fitness and
certified competence, hereto
fore uncompromisingly APP
plicable to command posts Of
lesser responsibility. In effect
they ruled, the greater the
command responsibility, the
less need fer Scrupulous chal-
lenge and proof of depend
able competence and per-
Torrance.
Furthermore this highly
speculative. conclusion was
concurred in by DR.. Paul
Dudley White. pre-eminent
as a heart specialist. and
DR.. David Altman, president
of the ANA. At a press con-
ference DR.. White, shortly
after the Presidents first
catastrophe illness, affirmed:
The Presidents future is in
the laps of the gods and
this is fundamentally, you
see, an arterial disease and
not primarily a heart dis
ease. 1t is the arteries that
are affected" And DR.. ALL
man, after the Presidents
second catastrophe illness,
opined. when President Eli
senhower RECEIVERS he will be
in better physical condition
than any of his opponents,
Republican or Democrat,
have been at any time in
their lives"
What assurance have We
that the supreme plenary
medical council that DR..
Bush proposes to make or
unmake Presidents will have
proper judicial objectivity
and consistency? The lamp
OF experience commands
these limitations on the find
ings and recommendations OF
any group OF doctors unless
we propose TO give doctors
dangerous political powers
and prestige: % No doctor
should sit upon a presidential
medical review board whose
future could either be favor
ably or adversely affected by
his findings. This would
definitely disqualify the med
ical brass of services under
the Presidents command.
90 The certification Of the
board shall be limited to
findings Of fact. They will
authenticate such verifiable
medical facts as a coronary
occlusion, a thrombosis, an
apoplexy or other major
pathological conditions. They
may not project their find
ings into any speculative
field Of unpredictable prog
nosis. 90 When the medical
finding has been dependably
authenticated, a rule Of laws
shall obtain. This rule Of
laws shall be identical with
the actuarial experience Ia
bles Of accepted insurance
risks and those applicable in
Government regulations to
major armed service and
civil service minimum stand
ards Of fitness,
Thomas z. Mattingly, MT.