"Who's for lunch?" said the captain rubbing his hands together

Timmy swallowed nervously.

Dilemma 57. A plane crash in the Himalayas. Three survivors, one of whom is badly injured and unlikely to survive. The other two, including the pilot, need to get going because their chance of rescue is slim. But they need provisions and Dominoes Pizza doesn’t deliver to the Himalayas. The young man suggests that Timmy should be the dish of the day. He’s doomed anyway. The pilot doesn’t fancy Timmy au vin, but the young man tells him a true story about some shipwrecked holidaymakers who abandoned a disabled man in order to survive.

“Oh I remember that. It was the first or second dilemma in the book,” said the pilot. “Captain Flintheart, wasn’t it? Why didn’t they throw him overboard?”

This dilemma is rather like the first one or two about sacrificing a few so that the rest may survive or condemning all. In this scenario, however, it’s the choice between letting Timmy die slowly while the cold weakens the other two, or killing Timmy and cooking him, thus enabling them to survive. There is, of course, that famous case of the survivors of the plane crash in the Andes. Horrifying though cannibalism is to most people, extreme measures tend to call for extreme remedies. I can’t say that if I was put in such a position, I’d find it easier to snack on the recently deceased than on the about to be deceased. Not a position I hope ever to find myself.

Tomorrow’s dilemma is all about feeding one badly to save many. (Avoid the snacks.)