"Lifeboat Ethics."

    Consider the following well-known thought experiment, popularized by Garrett Hardin, in his essay "Lifeboat Ethics." Imagine at first that we have all been shipwrecked and are floating in the middle of the ocean on a lifeboat: "So here we sit, say 50 people in our lifeboat. To be generous, let us assume it has room for 10 more, making a total capacity of 60. Suppose the 50 of us in the lifeboat see 100 others swimming in the water outside, begging for admission to our boat or for handouts. We have several options...the needs of all in the water are the same, and...they can all be seen as "our brothers,"...Since the boat has an unused excess capacity of 10 more passengers, we could admit just 10 more to it. But which 10 do we let in? How do we choose? Do we pick the best 10, "first come, first served"? And what do we say to the 90 we exclude?"