Reference no: EM133364737

A triage is a system of prioritizing when there are not enough resources for those in need.

A particularly harrowing real life example is provided by a situation at the Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina. See the interview with Sheri Fink.

After the power had run out at the hospital, helicopters began transferring patients from the Memorial Medical Center to another hospital in the distance where they could be treated. But only very few patients could be transported at a given time. Thus, the doctors had to prioritize which patients would be flown out first, and which later.

Fink discusses some of the issues raised in deciding who would be evacuated, and in what order. Should they prioritize small infants who, while very fragile, have the rest of their lives to live? Older patients who, while possessing the wisdom of their advanced age and have contributed to society, are closer to the end of their lives? The relatively healthy who, while still in need of care, are guaranteed to survive the helicopter flight? Pregnant women? Fink explains that at Memorial Medical, those closer to death were labeled as "3" and placed at the bottom of the list of those transported by helicopter. One doctor rationalized this by claiming that the such patients have "the least to lose" by dying.

Whenever I introduce situations like to my classes, at least one student claims that the triage should be drawn by random. After all, who gets to play God and choose whose life is worth saving over others?

1. Choose two out of the four moral theories we studied this week (Virtue Ethics, Natural Law Theory, Utilitarianism, and Kantian Ethics), and explain how the two theories would deal with the situation at Memorial Medical Center.

2. In your own opinion: who should have been evacuated first?