ABSTRACT
Triage, briefly defined, is the process of sorting the deserving from the undeserving according to predetermined priorities directed to predetermined ends. It is the process which attends any overwhelming medical disaster, and so is commonly, if not exclusively associated with the treatment to be accorded to battlefield casualties, under conditions of limited (medical) resources. But it has wider applications, being utilised as a system to allocate any scarce commodity, such as food, only to those capable of deriving the greatest benefit from it. Traditionally, the categories used are (1) those beyond help in the present situation, (2) those in need of immediate attention, and (3) those capable of surviving with no additional ill effects until treatment can be provided. Bear in mind that triage is a double-edged instrument: for those who are most directly involved, it is not about classifying human trauma for its own sake; rather it is about selecting those who will survive, who will return in a functional way to their respective units, and who will maintain the effectiveness of that unit or system. In the longer term, however, the classifications (and what they include in a substantive form) are important because they tell us more completely what happened than does the catalogue of what was allowed to remain. The recourse to such an approach is, therefore, also initiated as an alternative, less accommodating approach to that offered by mainstream analyses in the hope of challenging the latter’s well-refined habit of remotely viewing that which should be viewed more immediately, and giving names which are more proper and truthful.
