Dick Cheney’s Heart – ‘Logan’s Run’ 45 Years in the Making

William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson really were futurists. We didn’t want to believe their 1967 novel, Logan’s Run, about the annihilation of “old” people—anyone over 21—so by the time the 1976 movie came along, the studio had stretched the death-age to 30. Whoohoo. This week reality hit the fan …

“As Dick Cheney recovers from heart transplant surgery, questions are being raised about whether the former vice president is too old for a new heart.

            Cheney, 71, who received the new heart Saturday at a hospital in Falls Church, Va., has been on the cardiac transplant list for more than 20 months.

            Some medical centers will not perform a heart transplant on patient over 65, but other major centers will perform transplants on patients who are as old as 72. …”

The only difference between then and now is our death sentence reaches all the way to 65, and it isn’t a book or a movie—it’s reality. My sweet Grandma Connelly’s pink-cheeked face floated through my mind. She was 73 in 1976. Based on the movie, I wouldn’t have been born—wow—great population control.

Poor Dick Cheney finds himself the protagonist in this version, or at the very least, a poster-child for human rights. ARE WE MAD SCIENTISTS? It would seem so …

“Because Cheney has had two prior heart surgeries, the immediate period after his heart transplant is critical. The majority of patients die from acute rejection, infection or complications of surgery.

            If his heart should fail, Cheney would have two options: Undergo another transplant, which few centers would offer for a candidate of his age; or have another LVAD implanted, according to Dr. Mary Norin Walsh, director of cardiac transplantation at St. Vincent Hospital in Indiana. …” (Source.)

I had read headlines about the recent proclivity to restrict “old people” from receiving perfectly good hearts that could beat much longer in a young person, than the projected lifespan of someone already with one foot in the grave.

Want a major flaw in that thinking? WE DON’T KNOW WHEN WE’RE GOING TO DIE. Scenario: Let’s say we stripped Cheney of the right to a heart and gave that perfectly good heart to a sweet-16 girl. Ahhhhh, what a nice thought … she’ll be able to live to the ripe old age of 65, providing the heart doesn’t give out sooner, and the rest of her body is able—like MANY humans who live waaaay past 65, today.

Hmmm, but we’ve forgotten something—fate—what if that silly sixteen-year-old wants to experiment with drugs and kills her precious heart? Or, more palatable, what if she steps off a curb to cross the street and is creamed by the proverbial bus? That can happen to any one of us at ANY age.

So where does that leave the heart?

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be considerations to overall condition of aged heart transplant candidates (or any other organ), but to flat-out set an age limit is ridiculous. With this type of thinking, we don’t deserve to call ourselves “human.”

Cheers to you & yours!