Without even looking up from his work, the doctor said in a tired voice, “This is my station.” “But there are many dying on the riverbank over there.” “The first duty,” the doctor said, “is to take care of the slightly wounded.” “Why—when there are many who are heavily wounded on the riverbank?” The doctor moved to another patient. “In an emergency like this,” he said, as if he were reciting from a manual, “the first task is to help as many as possible—to save as many lives as possible. There is no hope for the heavily wounded. They will die. We can’t bother with them.”
