On NPR’s All Things Considered, Joseph Shapiro asks whether diabetes – or any other health condition -  should be a factor in deciding whether someone like Sonia Sotomayor is qualified to serve on the Supreme Court.

Some commentators have raised Sotomayor’s health as an issue, saying diabetes could shorten her lifespan. Diabetes experts say new treatments are allowing people to lead long, healthy lives.

Endocrinologist Paul Robertson, president for medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, suggested Sotomayor be asked whether she is taking care of herself properly.  “Those kinds of questions make sense because you’d ask the same questions of somebody with a chronic disease like heart disease or cancer or leukemia,” he said.

Chai Feldblum, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center who has a specialty in disability civil rights law, says Sotomayor’s example could reduce the stigma that exists around diabetes.

“It matters that a nominee for the Supreme Court is someone who acknowledges she has diabetes and that forms an aspect of her life,” says Feldblum. Disability civil rights groups noted that, at a time when other judges had limited the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Sotomayor ruled in favor of disabled plaintiffs, including a woman with learning disabilities who’d gotten extra time on tests during law school but then was denied the same accommodation when she tried to take the bar exam.

Earlier posts here.

John Nichols, writing in The Nation’s ‘The Beat’ blog, says Sonia Sotomayor’s lifetime of managing Type 1 diabetes is a “big deal” that adds to her value as a potential Supreme Court justice — and not just as a role model.

Sotomayor’s experience is particularly important, Nichols writes, to a court that will be addressing a growing number of cases that focus on health-care access and medical research. An excerpt:

To have a judge who understands, through personal experience, the challenges and the needs of Americans with with serious diseases, lifelong conditions and profound hopes for medical breakthroughs.

This is another piece of the diversity puzzle, an essential piece that ought not be underestimated.

In a very real sense, the disease that steered her toward a legal career and a place on the federal bench is one of the greatest strengths that Judge Sotomayor would bring to the Supreme Court.

Earlier posts here.

Time magazine asks — ‘Her diabetes: Will it be a handicap?’

An excerpt:

The nominee’s chronic condition is worth noting, since it puts her at increased risk of several serious medical conditions, including heart disease, kidney problems, blindness and nerve damage – and an increased risk of early death. Studies show that adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely than non-diabetics to die of heart disease. But when treated correctly, say doctors, Type 1 diabetes patients are able to lead relatively healthy lives. The latest data suggest that patients can successfully manage the disease for four or five decades with no serious health complications.

Diabetes and the Supreme Court Nominee — Associated Press

An excerpt:

As part of its vetting process, White House officials talked with Sotomayor about her diabetes and consulted her doctors and others before concluding she’s in good health and can serve for many years.

Praise for Sotomayor from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law (press release): Sotomayor nomination is good news, say advocates for people with mental disabilities

An excerpt:

“Her opinions demonstrate that Judge Sotomayor understands the language and the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability rights laws,” said Robert Bernstein, the Center’s executive director.

“Her empathy is evident, as is her understanding that judges’ decisions interpreting these federal laws have real-life consequences for people with disabilities and their opportunity to participate in American life,” Bernstein added.

The Bazelon Center offers a review and analysis of selected district court and Second Circuit decisions by Judge Sotomayor here.

See also:

• Sotomayor’s Type 1 diabetes a ‘non-issue,’ say docs — Wall Street Journal health blog
• Diabetes groups hail Obama court pick — Agence France-Presse

Earlier posts start here.

When President Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee today, he said he had sought a candidate who would bring, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, not just logic but experience …

“… experience being tested by obstacles and barriers, by hardship and misfortune; experience insisting, persisting, and ultimately overcoming those barriers. It is experience that can give a person a common touch and a sense of compassion, an understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live.”

Early press reporting on the nomination has interpreted Obama’s comments as referring to Sotomayor’s status as a woman and a Latina, the daughter of Puerto Rican immigants who grew up in a housing project in the Bronx.

But Sotomayor’s life journey also includes at least one other noteworthy aspect. She is a person with a disability: Type One diabetes, diagnosed when she was eight years old. People with diabetes are generally covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Sotomayor’s diabetes prompted renewed discussion among internet commentators about whether her health status should be considered when assessing her suitability for the high court post. See:

• A matter of health for SCOTUS nominee — April Fulton, NPR’s health blog
  
• Stop worrying about Sonia Sotomayor’s diabetes — Kate Daily on Newsweek’s ‘The Human Condition’ blog

In an interview with the New York Daily News in 1998, Sotomayor said her disability shaped her career choice. People with diabetes weren’t allowed to become detectives like her hero Nancy Drew, she said she was told, so she decided to become a lawyer instead.

See also:

American Diabetes Association applauds Sotomayor’s nomination — press release. The nomination …

… “affirms that people with diabetes should not be discriminated against and each person with diabetes should be judged based on his or her merits, not on stereotypes or misinformation about diabetes.

… As this process moves forward, the diabetes community expects that Judge Sotomayor’s nomination will be evaluated based on her qualifications and years of experience – and not her diabetes. To evaluate her in any other way would be a disservice to the United States.”

Earlier posts here and here.

Sam Stein writes in the Huffington Post that questions about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who is among the frontrunners for a Supreme Court nomination, have sparked a broader debate about the appropriateness of vetting potential political nominees for medical conditions. Sotomayor has Type One diabetes.

“It is obligatory [to look at this]” said Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN and author of “The Nine: Inside The Secret World of the Supreme Court.” “The issue of duration of service for a Supreme Court nominee is critical to any president, and thus health and medical issues are very much at the forefront of their considerations… It would be irresponsible for any president not to make the health of the nominee a major subject of concern, because presidents want decades of service from their nominees.”

Stein says few, if any, in the medical profession view Sotomayor’s diabetes as a “major disqualifier,” but says many experts say “there is a stigma attached to Type One diabetes that doesn’t exist with other conditions.” Experts say advances in diabetes care over the past two decades have dramatically improved prospects for quality of life and longevity, although complications can be significant.

Earlier post here.

See also:

Analyzing Jeff Rosen’s article about Sotomayor in the New Republic, the Wonkette website describes Sotomayor as “an annoying retard.”

From the New York Daily News, The New Republic:

Sonia Sotomayor, a New York federal judge who is widely believed to be on the short list for a Supreme Court nomination, has said her childhood diagnosis of diabetes was instrumental in her decision to become a lawyer.

Speaking to the New York Daily News in 1998, Sotomayor said she first aspired to become a detective like the heroine of the Nancy Drew books. But then …

At age 8, she was diagnosed with diabetes and was told detective work wasn’t in the cards.

“I became very disappointed about not having a life plan,” she told The News. “At the time, ‘Perry Mason’ had become a very popular show, and I loved Perry Mason. If I couldn’t do detective work as a police officer, I could do it as a lawyer.”

(Photo from New York Daily News)

From the Associated Press/MSNBC:

Patients with diabetes are increasingly cutting back on medical care or giving it up entirely as they lose income and health insurance during the recession, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Doctors report that diabetic patients are skipping medical appointments, and the sales of top-selling diabetes drugs and supplies have dropped since last fall. At the same time, the number of people with diabetes keeps growing. According to the American Diabetes Association, almost 24 million Americans have the disease. Some 1.6 million new cases were diagnosed in 2007.

People with diabetes can remain healthy and active with proper care and medication, but the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes can be devastating. Among the possible complications are vision loss, limb loss, stroke and heart attack.

Patients’ frugality comes at a tremendous cost to the already-strained health care system. The typical monthly bill to treat diabetes runs $350 to $900 for those without insurance … Emergency care and a short hospitalization can easily top $10,000, and long-term complications can cost far more.