After Gary Hobish collapsed while swing-dancing with friends in Golden Gate Park Sunday, a fellow dancer raced to the nearby de Young Museum in search of a defibrillator. Most people in the group knew Hobish, 70, had a heart condition. Seconds counted.

Inside the museum, Tim O’Brien found himself pleading with a staff member to let him use the life-saving device, or to accompany him back to where Hobish, a legend of the Bay Area music scene, lay unconscious. O’Brien offered the museum staffer his wallet and his watch as collateral.

The museum staffer checked with his boss, but the answer was firm: The de Young defibrillator could not leave the building.

O’Brien sprinted empty handed back to the group, where a doctor who had luckily been on the scene was administering CPR. Paramedics arrived a few minutes later, but by then nearly 10 minutes had gone by, O’Brien said.

But I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends

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[–] Huldra@hexbear.net 106 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Was there an ethical obligation to share the defibrillator?

The answer is not obvious.

Next paragraph.

Officials and experts said there was apparently no legal obligation for the de Young to share the device.

They highlighted several complicating considerations: What if the staffer had lent it out, and minutes later someone at the museum collapsed and needed it, they asked. And why should he lend it quickly to a distressed stranger, not knowing if it was a thief trying to make off with a device that usually costs around $2,000?

What if two people at the museum collapse at the same time and require defibrillating? What if the thief actually needed that money to save 3 lives?

I know what motherfucker ghostwrote this drivel.

[–] Wertheimer@hexbear.net 83 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What if, while we were using the fire extinguisher, a different fire broke out? We'd better not use it at all.

"A person dying of heart failure is a person dying of heart failure, but the mystery box could be anything. It could even be a person dying of heart failure!"

[–] HornyOnMain@hexbear.net 26 points 1 year ago

What if the staffer had lent it out, and minutes later someone at the museum collapsed and needed it

Doing morshupls to explain that the life of the old man dying outside is outweighed by the incredibly low risk to the life of a paying customer centrist

[–] Philosoraptor@hexbear.net 19 points 1 year ago

The trolley problem and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

[–] iridaniotter@hexbear.net 17 points 1 year ago

Love it when my mode of production acts as a fetter against attaining the post-conventional stage of moral development, a stage that adults are supposed to achieve.

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 15 points 1 year ago

What if no one involved ever consented in advance to being born and their lives are presumed to be unnecessary suffering anyway? morshupls