Does One Deserve to Live More Than The Other?
After the terrifying Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster there have been varying reports of acts of bravery as well as cowardly acts.
If you have never been on a cruise ship then you will not know that there is an emergency drill that happens to replicate an emergency evacuation. You go to your room, put on your life vests and wait for the emergency drill to start. It’s all very organized, but unfortunately during an actual emergency you are not all sitting in your room with your life vest on.
During our last cruise on the Costa Fortuna I was quickly moved to the front of a line to get on one of the life boats while my husband was placed at the very back of the line. I often wondered if that procedure would be followed through, because I know that I wouldn’t leave my husband at the back of the line – I couldn’t do that. He stays with me or nothing.
I can only imagine how terrifying it was for the passengers on the Costa Concordia. I don’t think they had been through their drill yet (it may not have even helped) and it sounds like the evacuation was very chaotic and scary.
I’ve read of a few tales of bravery.
- A French Woman’s husband gave her his life jacket knowing she couldn’t swim. She jumped off the ship and was assured that he would be alright from his yelling voice. Unfortunately he did not make it.
- A young 19 year old man helped people get into the lifeboats by allowing them to use his body as a ladder.
I’ve also read a few tales of where woman were being pushed to the side by men so they could get on the lifeboats first.
That brings me to my question – who is more important to save…a man, woman, or child?
Whose life becomes most important in a life and death situation?
If you follow the cruise drill you would think that children and women are the most important while men are the least.
I personally think that whomever has the least chance of survival should be saved first while the people with the most chance of survival should go last. I don’t think it comes down to man or woman – as no one’s life is more important than the next. I just think that if you have the ability to speed up the evacuation process then you should be doing everything you can to do that!
For instance, I personally believe that children and their mothers should be saved first. Kids do not have the ability to react in a life or death situation and they need adults to react for them. They have the least chance of survival when it comes to something like this and people who can collect themselves and their mind need to guide the children to the lifeboats and get them on it, and the mothers need to be there to support the kids and make sure they don’t do something dangerous that results in theirs, and others, lives being lost.
Then I think that anyone who doesn’t have the ability to move quickly – like seniors or disabled people, should be next. Again they should be directed by the able bodied people who are calm and acting in an organized manner.
And then I believe it should be everyone else.
Again, I don’t think it should be this way because one life is more important than the other, but I do think that the most able people to move the situation along should be the ones who do so, because they have the chance of saving the most lives, including their own.
What do you think?
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