dangerous if overgeneralized.

In a huge emergency, it's understandable (horrific, but understandable) that care is prioritized in this way. I'm not sure it's the best response, but it may be the only effective short-term response to this kind of emergency.

The thing about this that bothers me is that there's a pervasive need by some to generalize this kind of thinking to everyday life. If you're not healthy or wealthy enough, or the right age or colour, you may be denied access to health care or education or social services... Or, to put it another way, a major emergency is the only time that social Darwinism or even mainstream Economics makes any kind of sense.

Or, to put it yet another way, the pace of North American life makes us all behave as if we're living in a low-level emergency all the time, justifying all manner of stupidity simply because "it must get done"--and right now.