Analysis: Doctoring the Facts About Sharon’s Condition
Excerpts;
“It is now clear that although Ben-Hur and the other doctors who attended the press conference – Prof. Chaim Lotan, chief of cardiology at Hadassah; and Sharon’s personal physicians, Sheba Hospital director-general Prof. Boleslav Goldman and Sheba’s internal medicine expert Prof. Shlomo Segev – may have told the truth, they did not tell the whole truth.”
“At least one of the details they left out was that the doctors treating Sharon had discovered he was suffering from a disease of the blood vessels in his brain, which could lead to a cerebral hemorrhage.”
“In failing to tell all, however, the doctors did not break the law, for there is no law specifically obliging the prime minister or any other political leader to divulge his state of health.”
“There are, however, two legal principles that do relate to the situation that arose after Sharon’s first stroke, according to Prof. Amnon Carmi of the University of Haifa’s Faculty of Law.”
“On the one hand, he said, every individual has the right to privacy. Doctors are not allowed to provide information on the state of health of their patients without the patients’ permission.”
“On the other hand, Carmi said, there is the principle of the public’s right to know. Because Sharon is a public figure bearing great responsibility for the well-being of the country, the public has a right to know whether his ability to function effectively had been, or might be, negatively affected.”
“These conflicting rights need to be balanced. But there is nothing in the law that would hold the prime minister or his doctors criminally liable for refusing to divulge everything.”
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