Counting (part 3)
His forces are beyond number (Joel 2:11)
In my first two blogs on counting, I've explored the problems with counting and the difficult choices with care during this crisis, but haven't offered any alternative. Today I want to try to address that lack. First, my preferred moral theory is one that is taught to every A Level student as the Moral Law of Immanuel Kant. It is almost always misunderstood because it is expressed in such difficult terms but in essence he taught a very simple moral code: don't make an exception of yourself.
You'll recognise this if you have been keeping up with any of the problems with lockdown. The parties in the parks, the beach barbecues, even the empty shelves, express the idea that I can behave in ways I would not want everyone else to behave. Everyone else can do lockdown but not me. I need 60 toilet rolls but other people can make do with none.
If we applied this method, in simple terms, the clinical lead, the front-line surgeon, the government official has to ask themselves only one question before deciding whether or not to offer treatment: if I were them would I want it to be offered to me. Only when the answer is no, can lack of treatment be justified. There are, unfortunately for the government wonks, no numbers to be crunched, no statistics to be measured, but it does give an answer. Not only that but it treats people as having absolute value. I strongly suspect that in many if not most cases it would come up with the same answer as using QALYs, for Utilitarianism is a good approximation to morality, but the key difference is no one would be treated as a thing.
As a follower of Jesus, though, this is not quite enough. I personally hold that the essence of morality is modelling Christ. A complex and subtle version of What Would Jesus Do? I even wrote an unpublished book about it years ago. The principle to not make an exception of yourself is summarised by Jesus in his Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do to you. However he goes further. He does make an exception of himself when he gives the example of self-sacrifice. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In this very particular way we are called to be the exception, one that gives up all out of love for others.
Our NHS staff are showing this every day as they battle in front line against COVID-19. The high prevalence of the virus on the wards increases their risk of getting seriously ill or even dying. If they were not making an exception of themselves they would stay at home. It is the right thing to do, and we are very grateful that they are, but that sacrifice cannot be counted with numbers. As Paul writes, 'Faith, Hope, Love, these three remain, but the greatest of these is love'.
When we come out of this, wouldn't it be wonderful if we learnt to count people not as things but as individuals, as, well, people, and to allow our health service to be limited by love and not by money. You see, unlike money, the great thing about love is that it has no limit. The more you use it the bigger it grows.
In my first two blogs on counting, I've explored the problems with counting and the difficult choices with care during this crisis, but haven't offered any alternative. Today I want to try to address that lack. First, my preferred moral theory is one that is taught to every A Level student as the Moral Law of Immanuel Kant. It is almost always misunderstood because it is expressed in such difficult terms but in essence he taught a very simple moral code: don't make an exception of yourself.
You'll recognise this if you have been keeping up with any of the problems with lockdown. The parties in the parks, the beach barbecues, even the empty shelves, express the idea that I can behave in ways I would not want everyone else to behave. Everyone else can do lockdown but not me. I need 60 toilet rolls but other people can make do with none.
If we applied this method, in simple terms, the clinical lead, the front-line surgeon, the government official has to ask themselves only one question before deciding whether or not to offer treatment: if I were them would I want it to be offered to me. Only when the answer is no, can lack of treatment be justified. There are, unfortunately for the government wonks, no numbers to be crunched, no statistics to be measured, but it does give an answer. Not only that but it treats people as having absolute value. I strongly suspect that in many if not most cases it would come up with the same answer as using QALYs, for Utilitarianism is a good approximation to morality, but the key difference is no one would be treated as a thing.
As a follower of Jesus, though, this is not quite enough. I personally hold that the essence of morality is modelling Christ. A complex and subtle version of What Would Jesus Do? I even wrote an unpublished book about it years ago. The principle to not make an exception of yourself is summarised by Jesus in his Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do to you. However he goes further. He does make an exception of himself when he gives the example of self-sacrifice. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In this very particular way we are called to be the exception, one that gives up all out of love for others.
Our NHS staff are showing this every day as they battle in front line against COVID-19. The high prevalence of the virus on the wards increases their risk of getting seriously ill or even dying. If they were not making an exception of themselves they would stay at home. It is the right thing to do, and we are very grateful that they are, but that sacrifice cannot be counted with numbers. As Paul writes, 'Faith, Hope, Love, these three remain, but the greatest of these is love'.
When we come out of this, wouldn't it be wonderful if we learnt to count people not as things but as individuals, as, well, people, and to allow our health service to be limited by love and not by money. You see, unlike money, the great thing about love is that it has no limit. The more you use it the bigger it grows.
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| With Daddy at the Eden Project |
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