orwell was right.

so my 73 year old father has a choice coming up (though it's likely to be 5 or 7 years before he'll have to make it) which is that he can choose to replace his leaking heart valve (the same genetic flaw that killed my grandfater WHEN HE WAS 89, and which I am likely to have as well) with a metal valve OR a heart valve taken from a pig or cow.

Both of them invlove mandatory drug regimens which will make his quality of life go way down.

Knowing my dad, he's likely to not bother with the surgery and just continue to live his live and drive his oil leaking 20 year old car until he drops over one day.
more power to him. I just hope he's not at the wheel of said car at the time.