Pacemakers may be only a transitional phase of medical technology anyway, useful though they are.  One possibility of medical research is that it will eventually be possible to grow new hearts from a patient's own stem cells, so that there is no problem of compatibility or availability.  We could then simply replace hearts that aren't working well (as well as other malfunctioning organs).  But there is no telling how long it might take to perfect that technology (if, indeed, we ever do).

In any event, it seems to me that maliciously hacking into the programming of someone's pacemaker would be an exceptional disgusting kind of crime.  Surely those who have such dire health problems as to require a pacemaker have had enough trouble in their lives, and deserve the sympathy of their fellow people.  I suppose it is still debatable as to whether we would make an exception for Dick Cheney.  But personally I do believe in the democratic process to the extent that it is better to simply vote people out of office, or in more extreme cases, to impeach them, than it is to assassinate them, if you are not happy with their performance in office.  Assassination is very anti-democratic, to the extent that assassins take it upon themselves to effectively over-rule the will of the majority.  Even if a truly bad President or vice-President were to be assassinated, it would make a bad precedent.  Democracy is worth preserving.  Government by coup d'etat gets to be a bad habit.

Pretty scary shit that we're already at this level of cyborgization. I'm not typically a manga fan but Ghost In The Shell does a really awesome job of overviewing some of the personal issues that will arise with the increased assimilation of cybernetics into our lifestyle. It just goes that much further to support my continued hypothesis that technological advancement is simply that--technological advancement and does not intrinsically bring improvement to the human condition.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

I'm going to start writing a movie thriller about a rich guy who gets blackmailed after his pacemaker gets hacked, but first I have to finish my movie script about assasinating a President with a pacemaker using an EMF pulse.