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!
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