Books in Brief: Triage

Triage, by Leonard C. Lewin (Dial, 216 pp., $5.95). The author of Report from Iron Mountain, the think-tank hoax that provoked a good deal of discussion five years ago, has written this new book of the same genre under his own name. Like Report, it is essentially science fiction constructed by the familiar process of extrapolating from existing trends. Mr. Lewin is not much of a hand with either story or character, but—as in Report—the thrust of his logic is formidable. His explanation of his title will suggest what he is saying this time. “The best working model for our mission is the triage officer in a military field hospital. He is the doctor who must decide on the disposition of casualties as they come in from the battlefield faster than they can be taken care of. The triage determines who will be selected for immediate medical treatment, who will be put off till later, and who will be abandoned to die. The choice must be made, whatever the criteria. Leaving it to chance … is not an expression of moral modesty; it is criminal negligence. To waste resources on the hopeless or nearhopeless case while another bleeds to death unnecessarily because he arrived a minute later, or whatever, is absurd. Expand this to the social scale. The object of triage is simply to save as many as can be saved, and that is the first part of our object. Our criteria will vary as we work them out, but they will surely relate first of all to survival, over the long haul, of the greatest number of fully functioning and productive members of the species. Any questions at this point?”