Privacy Debate Arises as Some Link Apple's Health to Jobs's

Steve Jobs, a 53-year-old cancer survivor, refuses to discuss his health. Some think he should, given his key role in Apple's successes. (By Paul Sakuma -- Associated Press)

"If you imagine there's this Steve Jobs Junior being groomed in the wings, there isn't," he said. Jobs is such a strong-willed leader by nature that the company has been left with "a roomful of yes men," he said.

Kay said he thinks Jobs may have health issues, simply because the company hasn't said otherwise. "It doesn't make any sense," he said. "It kind of says that there's more there."

When Jobs's pancreatic cancer was diagnosed in 2003, it was nine months before the company disclosed it. A spokesman said yesterday that Apple does not comment on rumors.

That only seemed to fuel debate in the blogosphere: Is he healthy or not? Is Jobs's health even fair game for discussion?

One writer at the tech news site CNet asked this week whether some glitches in the latest iPhone software were the result of "Jobs' lack of oversight due to encroaching health problems."

But another writer at the same site, found the discussion both "unseemly" and "despicable."

"Should Microsoft have to release the results of Steve Ballmer's last physical because a shareholder points out that he's a bit overweight and a bit high-strung?" asked another blogger at the site.

Adam Engst, publisher of an influential Mac news site called TidBits, made clear yesterday which side of this issue he falls on. "I'd be wildly embarrassed to walk up to Steve Jobs and say, 'So . . . do you still have cancer?' "