Proposed action: Allocate care by medical need, likelihood of benefit, and fair process.
Strongest case for
When resources cannot save everyone, saving the most lives with fair clinical criteria preserves the most experience and possibility.
Strongest case against
Any selection risks smuggling in social worth, bias, or hidden judgments about whose life matters more.
Who is affected, on which currencies
Analysis by track
Experience
The primary welfare duty is urgent preservation of life and reduction of suffering.
Agency
Agency is constrained by emergency conditions. Fair criteria and consent where possible preserve respect.
Possibility
Saving more patients preserves more open futures, but this affects stakes, not intrinsic standing.
Reality-contact
Triage requires clear facts: prognosis, timing, resource limits, and clinical criteria.
Foreclosure
Death forecloses futures; the framework seeks the least destructive path under scarcity.
Residue
Even fair triage leaves residue because real people are lost through scarcity.
Process
Use transparent medical criteria, avoid social worth, document decisions, and reassess as resources change.
Numbers and survivability can guide triage; human worth cannot be ranked.
Still open
- How should tie-breaks be handled when clinical criteria are equal?
- What institutions best protect triage from bias?