00:00When the Princess of Wales announced her cancer diagnosis to the world in March, it was a
00:08shock for everyone. Up until then, we had seen weeks and weeks of conspiracy theories
00:14and all kinds of rumours flooding social media about what had happened to Kate Middleton.
00:19In hindsight, perhaps the palace could have handled it better by being more upfront about
00:23her health challenges, without necessarily revealing all the details of her medical issues
00:28and her medical history. But that's where the dilemma comes in when it comes to public
00:32figures and whether they have a right to privacy, especially about their health. Actually, everyone
00:38has a right to privacy when it comes to your health, especially when it comes to a disease
00:42like cancer. Cancer, of course, is not a death sentence for everyone any longer. There are
00:48newer treatments, better treatments which are out there and many people do recover,
00:53but it is still a dreaded disease and the diagnosis not only affects the patient or
00:58the person who has it, but their families and their support structure as well. So how
01:03they choose to share this information is their own choice. But at the same time, if a public
01:10figure is someone who holds a constitutional office, like the president or the prime minister
01:15of a country, I believe that it is imperative and that people do have a right to know what
01:21the medical challenges are that they are facing, what their diagnosis is, what the
01:25outlook is. Now, the Americans are quite transparent about that. We see health updates about President
01:30Biden quite regularly. He just had his physical back in February, where the doctor gave us
01:35all kinds of details, including about his sleep apnea. There was a debate about the
01:41same thing in India when Sonia Gandhi wasn't well several years ago. But while she was
01:45a politician and was very much in the public eye, she wasn't holding a constitutional post.
01:52So where it affects somebody who's in office and possibly how they function, how they lead
01:58a country or do their job, I do think it's imperative for greater transparency. But hopefully,
02:04as far as the Princess of Wales is concerned, the trolls and the social media conspiracies
02:09will now die down. A lesson here, perhaps, that more transparency, especially in the
02:14digital age, is better for everyone.
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