It works. General Augusto Heleno showed up with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, his lawyers asked for house arrest and the PGR agreed. It is very likely that Alexandre de Moraes would grant humanitarian benefit. Unlike Gayer, Heleno did nothing that could be construed as an escape attempt.
I know that many will be skeptical about a timely diagnosis, but I do not interfere in this area. What concerns me here is the issue of legal capacity. If we are to believe this, he discovered he had the disease in 2018, and the following year, he became Minister of State. We spent four years under the care of a senior authority who was already showing dementia syndrome or at least enough signs of cognitive decline to see a doctor.
How to organize this? And look, on the other hand, on the youth side, we do not hesitate to legislate on the basis of average. Brazilians do not become fully capable adults until they are eighteen, and even then, they must wait until they are thirty-five to exercise tasks that we believe require more maturity, such as the presidency.
Should we then, in parallel, set a maximum age for occupying positions of authority? There is already mandatory retirement at age 75 for many government jobs, but the justifications there open more room for innovation than the presumption of incapacity, which is almost certainly unconstitutional. Another possibility is to subject candidates for elected and freely appointed positions to cognitive tests. We already require a medical examination from anyone who wants to renew their driver’s license.
I won’t go down that road. If knowledge is allowed to be assessed, why not personality tests as well? This would rid us of toxic species, but it would also give one branch of medicine disproportionate power in deciding who can or cannot be candidates.
Democracy is a risky contract. If a decrepit psychopath convinces the majority of the population that he is best suited to rule them, it will be even worse for the population. Disqualification must be based on crimes committed, not on perceived risks.
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