I just read that former Vice President Dick Cheney may decide to obtain a heart transplant. From the story:
The potential for a heart transplant: “What’s happened over time is the technology’s gotten better and better and we’ve gotten more and more experience with people living with this technology. So I’ll have to make a decision at some point whether or not I want to go for a transplant. But we haven’t addressed that yet.”
If he is a proper patient for such a treatment, that is great, and I hope he receives a new heart and thrives. But, to borrow a phrase, the transplant system should not be a respecter of persons—meaning that he should wait his turn equally for the surgery like any other potential heart transplant patient. In other words, no Mickey Mantle redux. (Not that Cheney would try to jump the queue, but I think the point should be quite clear.)
