What would you do?

[caty]

"Ethics and Everest: Reflections on the Uphill Battle
by Ethics Newsline editor Carl Hausman

About a month ago, a 34-year-old Briton named David Sharp died of exposure in the Himalayas, the mountain range where 14 of the world's highest peaks are located. Sharp's death was not a shocking and singular news event. About a dozen people have died so far this year trying to accomplish what has worked its way into the lexicon as an expression signifying extraordinary accomplishment: climbing Mount Everest.

What did make the news were reports that about 40 climbers passed him by, unwilling to abandon their own treks to the summit. Some maintained that Sharp's condition was hopeless and that other lives would have been endangered in a rescue attempt.

News reports also noted that abandoning one's own climb could have been a high-stakes loss, because adventurers often pay in the neighborhood of $60,000 for a guided trip to the summit, and guides are under intense pressure to get the mission accomplished."

http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/members/pastissue2.tmpl?issueid=6/12/2006#06120618140669

No matter how much money I would have lost, I would have helped that man. I wouldn't want to live the rest of my life thinking I might have been able to save a life, but didn't even try.

[Deja Q]

1. It's sick, what our "society" has become.

[caty]

2. When we look at the difference in

the way people think, it is clear that some people are just on a different "wave length". A good example is the right wingers who claim to be moral, yet do so many unethical things. Some people think they can justify their actions, no matter how un-compassionate those actions might be.

[Godhumor]

5. It is also why they tell women to shout "fire"

instead of "rape" if they are attacked. People will come running if they think personal safety is compromised but will ignore situations that could possibly endanger themselves or lead to unpleasant confrontation.

The worst one from my own experience is a girl who was dragged out of a restaurant and brutally raped in a white van while diners watched her being dragged away. It not only sickened me, but I used to work at the mall where it happened--I still think quite often about what might have been if I had been there that day.

[KitchenWitch]

3. I heard that story and got really angry

It angers and saddens me how selfish "civilization" has become.

[Skittles]

4. well, I'd never do anything as stupid as climbing that mountain

that being said, I would never, ever ignore someone who needed help

[Nicole]

6. I would have stayed with him

until he died. I couldn't have just left him there to die alone.

[caty]

7. It is hard to believe that

out of 40 people, at least one of them did not think of that.

[Wetzelbill]

8. that is fucked up

I wouldn't know what I would do unless I was in that situation, but I'd like to think I would have at least stayed with the guy until he died. I mean, who cold-hearted do you have to be to just leave someone to die like that, alone in their last moments, with no comfort? Money or whatever else is in no way more important than that human being lying there dying. No way.

[bluethruandthru]

9. What is wrong with people?

How did they know his condition was hopeless? It's not like he had been shot and was bleeding to death? It's just sickening to think that out of 40 people, no one thought to at least try and save him? Or is this a case of 40 people being led by a few guides who made the decision not to stop?

[Dead_Parrot]

10. Toon...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/gallery/photo/0,2540,237607a460a324,00.jpg

[YankeyMCC]

11. What struck me was this:

"Add to this mixture relatively inexperienced climbers who are paying a fortune to be able to say they climbed Mount Everest,..."

I first heard of this story this past weekend, although the person who told me about it apparently got some details wrong, and actually my first comment was, "Many others passed him by?" Has the ascent to the summit become so heavily trafficked? It's one of the most (the most?) remote location on Earth and that many people pass by...even the fact of a single large group passing seems very odd - in a bad way to me. Think of all the wasted resources so that many of these people "..building a lifetime supply of cocktail-party conversation with their $60,000 investments"

To me that too is an ethical matter.

To the question of if I would help or what I think of the ethical choice of those that passed him by I can only say that unless it put more people in danger (the people I was climbing with presumably) I would of course do what I could for the man regardless of the financial cost or lost opportunity to climb to the summit. Next time it could be me. And beyond that it's other people in this world that are important not a mountain summit.

But to the other ethical issue of the apparent 'crowds' on the trail. I love hiking and climbing (if you can call hiking up New England's peaks climbing :) ) and in my dreams I would love the opportunity to climb Sagarmatha I would never do so unless I was very well prepared, only because of my love for the sport (to use the phrase in this article but I would maybe say the love of the mountain or land), and if I was prepared to face this kind of ethical choice and prepared for the possibility that I might not make it for one reason or another.