Thinking about Triage

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, triage means “the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors.” In a broader sense, triage can refer to choosing who will live and who will die in crisis situations.

Triage and the Covid-19 Pandemic

The April 4 issue of The Economist includes a short article titled “Triage under trial.” Already by then, in the U.S. and Europe many doctors were “faced with terrible decisions about how to allocate scarce resources such as beds, intensive care, and ventilators.”

The practice of utilitarian triage was suggested as the best solution, that is, using resources (medical staff, supplies, and equipment) for “the patients who have the greatest chances of successful treatment, and who have the greatest life expectancy.”

The article concludes that “humans tend to be inclined to treat others according to need and their chances of survival. That framework seems broadly morally acceptable. Even so, it will involve many heart-wrenching decisions along the way.”

We can hope that during the current covid-19 pandemic, triage, if or when necessary, will be implemented in this way rather than giving precedence to those who are wealthier or more socially prominent to the neglect and detriment of those who are poor and disadvantaged. 

Triage in The Devil’s Arithmetic

At sundown two days ago, on April 8, the Jewish Passover began, and for many Jews it began with the Seder meal, an elaborate ritual based on recounting the Jewish deliverance from captivity in Egypt.

The Devil’s Arithmetic, the 1988 juvenile historical novel by Jane Yolen and the 1999 movie by the same name, begins with an extended Jewish family in New York celebrating the Passover Seder meal together.

I recently read the book and watched the movie after hearing that Carl, my 12-year-old grandson, is going to be reading the book, which evidently has been used in middle school curricula for many years. (I now wonder about the wisdom of having children of that age reading a book with so much violence and suffering/death.)

The Nazis in the Jewish work/death camps used a form of negative triage to decide who to kill, not who to save. Those who appeared to be the sickest or the weakest were chosen for the oven and to go up the smokestack.

Terrible triage, indeed!

Triage and Good Friday

As today is Good Friday for Christians around the world (except for the Orthodox Church that celebrates it a week later this year), let’s consider a type of triage decision that led to the death of Jesus.

According to John 11:48, the religious/political leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem were worried about the growing popularity of Jesus. They fretted that because of Jesus, “ the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our people” (CEB).

In response to that expressed fear, we see the high priest Caiaphas’s employment of “triage.” He asserted that “it is better for you that one man die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed” (v. 50).

The Roman rulers were always on guard against subversion—and the Jewish leaders were, probably rightly, afraid that Jesus would be increasingly seen as subversive. So according to John 11:53, “From that day on they plotted to kill him”—and the plot succeeded as Jesus was crucified on what Christians consider the first Good Friday.

So, note that Jesus was not crucified by the Jews because of religious reasons; he was crucified by the Romans for political reasons. And, according to the verses we have looked at in John 11, the Jewish leaders sought Jesus’ death in order to keep the Jewish nation from being destroyed.

Caiaphas’s triage worked—at least for a few decades.

However, Jesus’ death turned out to have a whole new level of significance that neither the Romans nor the Jews in Jerusalem dreamed of.

Yes, today is Good Friday—but Sunday’s coming. Happy Easter!