Women and Children First?

Our Wednesday evening study of Christian Ethics continues with a look at matters of distributive justice. When there is only so much of a good thing to go around, who gets it and why? To give an example of how our notions of distributive justice have changed, it was once the norm to save the lives of women and children before men. According to a Trinity University Sociology webpage

When the Titanic sunk on April 14, 1912, more than eight out of ten of those who drowned were men. As the recent movie of the event recounted, many of these men had sacrificed themselves so women and children would have seats in the scarce lifeboats. Eighty years later, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette queried its readers about whether they, under such circumstances, be willing to relinquish their seats. Only 35% of the men said they would for unrelated women and children. In fact, only 54% were willing to cede their lifeboat seats for their mothers and 67% for their spouses.

How should one determine who gets a seat on a lifeboat when there are not enough seats for everyone? How are health care professionals to determine who gets a donated organ and who remains on the list? How should our local non-profit groups, such as the Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity, determine who gets assistance and who does not?

Tonight, we will consider how can we decide particular matters regarding particular goods (such as a heart transplant)? We'll look at the relative merits of simple equality, need, merit, benefit and effort as we consider case studies.