Ridgeon Monologue from The Doctor's Dilemma

From The Doctor's Dilemma by Bernard Shaw

male · anguished · 1:20 min

Wait a moment. Try to think of those ten patients as ten shipwrecked men on a raft--a raft that is barely large enough to save them--that will not support one more. Another head bobs up through the waves at the side. Another man begs to be taken aboard. He implores the captain of the raft to save him. But the captain can only do that by pushing one of his ten off the raft and drowning him to make room for the new comer. That is what you are asking me to do. (MRS DUBEDAT: But how can that be? I dont understand. Surely--) You must take my word for it that it is so. My laboratory, my staff, and myself are working at full pressure. We are doing our utmost. The treatment is a new one. It takes time, means, and skill; and there is not enough for another case. Our ten cases are already chosen cases. Do you understand what I mean by chosen?

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