Chapter 19
When Jon returned to camp 4 after a desperate search for Andy Harris, Stuart Hutchison stepped up as the leader and conducted a search for survivors or possibly dead bodies who had been left presumed dead the night before. The two sherpas and Stuart soon found the body of Beck and Namba near where they had been left. Although both were unconsciously buried in snow and heavily frostbitten, both were still alive and breathing. After a discussion with the sherpas, Stuart was forced to make the decision to leave the two climbers, because bringing them down the steep hill would endanger himself and the two sherpas. But Beck somehow managed to come back into consciousness and walked back to camp IV later that day alone in his frozen body. He was given first aid and spent the night in a tent alone. But once again he was considered to have no hope to survive and was given no care. Unable to call for help because of the noise of the wind, Beck suffered for the entire morning until Jon went by his tent got him help. Beck was later able to walk down the mountain and he is still alive nowadays.
Conflict between a moral decision and a logically correct decision plays a main role in this chapter. When faced with the decision of whether to bring Namba and Beck down or not, the moral decision was definitely to do so since they were still breathing. Leaving alive humans to let them die is not morally correct. But given the condition of the rescuers--- extremely fatigue, and the danger of the mountain, Stuart must consider the consequence to be moral, it may cost the lives of three more together with the two. It was a hard decision but Stuart made the right decision to leave Beck and Namba. When Beck miraculously walked to camp, decision had to be made once again: whether to save Beck with the limited supply or use them on other people who had more hopes to survive. And the decision was again made to leave Beck.
This conflict between being moral vs. logically correct happens everyday in a much less intense scale. But when given the choice of life and death, decisions were hard to make. The decisions of rescuing Namba and Beck reflects the cruelty and danger every climber face on Everest.
Conflict between a moral decision and a logically correct decision plays a main role in this chapter. When faced with the decision of whether to bring Namba and Beck down or not, the moral decision was definitely to do so since they were still breathing. Leaving alive humans to let them die is not morally correct. But given the condition of the rescuers--- extremely fatigue, and the danger of the mountain, Stuart must consider the consequence to be moral, it may cost the lives of three more together with the two. It was a hard decision but Stuart made the right decision to leave Beck and Namba. When Beck miraculously walked to camp, decision had to be made once again: whether to save Beck with the limited supply or use them on other people who had more hopes to survive. And the decision was again made to leave Beck.
This conflict between being moral vs. logically correct happens everyday in a much less intense scale. But when given the choice of life and death, decisions were hard to make. The decisions of rescuing Namba and Beck reflects the cruelty and danger every climber face on Everest.