So who decides between life and death? As the Covid-19 outbreak threatens to overwhelm healthcare systems, it also presents a harrowing human dilemma. We have caught a glimpse of this in Italy. Distilled to its essentials, it can be expressed more or less as follows.

Doctor A has one ventilator and two patients in the grip of the coronavirus. Arriving first at the hospital, patient B, a 65-year-old retiree thought to have only a slim, albeit still measurable, chance of survival, is being kept alive on the ventilator. Patient C, a 35-year old teacher who arrived later, is deteriorating fast, but is judged to have a high chance of recovery if transferred to the ventilator.

Considering this quandary in the abstract, my sense is that most people take a broadly utilitarian view: the doctor would be right, perhaps should even be compelled, to switch around the two patients. Physicians swear a sacred oath to uphold life. Transferring patient C to the ventilator would be the route most likely to do so.