We do, however, have people who have the job of doing so.
Doctor’s and first responders, in times when there are more patients requiring immediate attention than there are resources available for all of them, literally do life arithmetic.
The algorithm we’ve decided on prioritizes likelihood of survival over quantity of survival in cases with low information, like a plane crash or an explosion.
Only a few years ago we had a national incident that required decisions about who to kill to be made rather often, specifically regarding ventilators. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2005689
That persons? No, almost certainly not.
We do, however, have people who have the job of doing so.
Doctor’s and first responders, in times when there are more patients requiring immediate attention than there are resources available for all of them, literally do life arithmetic.
The algorithm we’ve decided on prioritizes likelihood of survival over quantity of survival in cases with low information, like a plane crash or an explosion.
Only a few years ago we had a national incident that required decisions about who to kill to be made rather often, specifically regarding ventilators.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2005689