It’s a stupid dilemma, since the optimal move is obviously for the patients to play russian roulette. The doctor doesn’t even have any decisions to make, and should optimally be kept ignorant until he or she hears the loud bang. In this highly artificial situation—five tissue matches each needing a different organ, all of whom will die without it and with no likely donors. (What is this, clone club health issues?) Well, they are all dead if they do nothing. So, russian roulette among the already doomed. Upsides clearly outweigh the downsides, and the reputation effects of benefiting from a gambling pact of this kind are.. well, not negligible, but much less severe than that of murder.
Heck, effectively, this is more or less what actually happens in real life. One of the patients will croak first. With any luck, the rest of the body will not have degraded beyond usability at that point. The gun just makes sure of that.
It’s a stupid dilemma, since the optimal move is obviously for the patients to play russian roulette. The doctor doesn’t even have any decisions to make, and should optimally be kept ignorant until he or she hears the loud bang. In this highly artificial situation—five tissue matches each needing a different organ, all of whom will die without it and with no likely donors. (What is this, clone club health issues?) Well, they are all dead if they do nothing. So, russian roulette among the already doomed. Upsides clearly outweigh the downsides, and the reputation effects of benefiting from a gambling pact of this kind are.. well, not negligible, but much less severe than that of murder. Heck, effectively, this is more or less what actually happens in real life. One of the patients will croak first. With any luck, the rest of the body will not have degraded beyond usability at that point. The gun just makes sure of that.