Comments on: A bioethicist weighs in: Was Cheney too old for a transplant?

By: Jody

Jody — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:44:03 +0000

Last. n/t

By: bowser

bowser — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:24:48 +0000

Cheney is not a martyr. He’s a war criminal. If he traveled to many countries he’d be tried, not given a heart.

By: Jody

Jody — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:20:05 +0000

Some people are more of a threat after they die Bowser…you can’t kill an idea.

By: bowser

bowser — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:18:25 +0000

You are right. I don’t think Cheney deserves to live, no matter his age. And, therefore, I don’t think resources should be diverted from the more appropriate to keep his miserable soul connected to his old body.

By: bowser

bowser — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:06:27 +0000

If he was competent, his is the only directive which matters. Friends and family, including those with a Power of Attorney for Health Care don’t matter.

The surgeons can refuse to do it if in their opinion there isn’t a chance of survival.

If he passed within 24 hours of the decision he must have been in poor condition.

There may have been other factors, too. The colon surgery may have had a 10% chance of survival, and he may still have been left with metastatic cancers all over the place.

And you are absolutely correct. He was the “decider” while he was competent.

By: Jody

Jody — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:27:42 +0000

Not really a silly question. In my reality when a woman is pregnant, so is the man who helped get her pregnant. It involves two people….waiting for the impending birth of their creation. Sorta romantic, actually in a biological way. Not romantic *after* the baby is born…but I digress…

Anyway…I stand by my original statement…you simply want Cheney dead…gone…finito.

I get it.

By: FrankC

FrankC — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:17:13 +0000

He was begging for the surgery

He had the wherewithall to pay for it

I think he knew he was unlikely to wake up from the surgery but preferred the 10% chance to waiting for the certain end that might have been longer than 24 hours.

There is a good chance that he had stopped caring by the time the morphine kicked in but he was of sound mind and I don’t believe in a committee of relatives and Doctors having the power of life and death over someone based on his or hers age.

I am not getting into the Cheney thing because it involves the availability of a heart for transplant, but age 70 is too arbitrary to suit me if the organ is available and no one has a better or more logical claim on that organ.

By: bowser

bowser — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:14:46 +0000

The answer depends. Was it correct for him?

For his family?

For his personal community? For his physician? For the surgeon? For the hospital?

For the nation?

For Medicare?

I think there are different considerations for all of them.

It sounds as if it wasn’t the right decision for him. Though there are nine chances out of ten he would not be aware of the outcome.

It sounds as if it isn’t known if it was or wasn’t for his family.

Or the physicians. Or the hospital.

But anyone who dies 24 hours after leaving the hospital doesn’t sound as if he was in very good shape for something as radical as that surgery would have had to be.

By: TB

TB — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:09:24 +0000

A short article on the heart transplant system and Cheney here.

By: ER

ER — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:32:12 +0000

All services where demand exceeds supply must be rationed, whether by an administrative decision based on guidelines and judgements, the flip of a coin, custom and tradition, or by the market.

Maybe it should be decided by who can most afford it. Put the service up for bid. Let he who can pay the most get the heart first. And if the hearts run out before the money does, well, so it goes.

And why stop at medical rationing? How about lifeboat seats on a sinking ship? Women and children first? What a quaint old tradition! Why not First class, and Second if there’s room; steerage…well, that’s not part of the price of your ticket.