Tancredo Augusto Tolentino Neves has won the right to obtain medical records concerning the treatment and death of his father, former Brazilian President Tancredo Neves, who died in 1985 before taking office. He had been elected in the first presidential election after the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship.
On the 26th, the 13th Panel of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region ruled unanimously in favor of Tancredo Augusto’s case against the Federal Council of Medicine and the Regional Council of Medicine of the Federal District. The Federal Court in the Federal District had previously dismissed the case without ruling on its merits; the appeals court overturned that decision. The medical bodies must now provide the documents to the former president’s family.
The medical councils had argued that the records were protected by professional confidentiality, according to the court’s press office. The case’s rapporteur, federal appellate judge Roberto Carvalho Veloso, said medical secrecy must be weighed against rights to information, human dignity, and the preservation of family and historical memory. The other judges on the panel agreed.
Veloso said the case had historical significance and was of interest to Brazilian society as a whole, not only to Tancredo Neves’ heirs. In his ruling, he wrote that understanding the circumstances of the former president’s treatment and death was important to preserving his historical memory.
Tancredo Augusto argued that the records could help clarify an episode in Brazil’s transition to democracy and support a second edition of the book “The Patient: The Tancredo Neves Case.”
Sources: Folha Poder.