In a Pandemic, Who Gets to Live?
Fascinating, especially if Obama gets to play god and decide who gets preferential treatment via presidential decree.
Read the whole piece at ABC News
As if wars and economic crises and natural disasters weren’t enough, here’s a challenge for some future president that few people even want to think about: Some day, perhaps soon, a president will have to decide whose lives are the most important to save, and whose lives are “nonessential.”
This isn’t going to be a doomsday story, because most people will survive the next influenza pandemic, which some public health experts believe is past due. It’s not a question of “if,” it’s a question of “when,” and one study from Harvard University estimates that the pandemic will kill somewhere between 51 million and 81 million people, mostly in developing countries.
Hundreds of organizations and institutions around the world are developing plans for dealing with the expected pandemic, and one challenging theme is begging for more public discussion. Some people will be more important than others in fighting the disease as it spreads quickly around the planet, and many more will be left to pretty much fend for themselves.
…
And, of course, there’s the trickle-down effect. It would likely require a presidential decree to designate broadly who gets preferential treatment in response to the disaster. But who’s going to make the decision on a community level? The study notes that for any plan to be successful, it must be perceived as “fair,” but is that even possible?
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