John Kilner explains that African doctors would follow different
orders of selection than U.S. doctors in certain situations of scarce
medical resources.
    African doctors would tend to treat older patients in cases of drug
shortages. The reason for this selection is that more wisdom would be
lost if an older person were denied the treatment and a larger network of
relationships would be affected if the elderly were denied treatment.
     A patient without children would be preferred over one with children.
The patient without children should be allowed to live and produce a family.
    In case of a drug shortage, African doctors would prefer to give a
half treatment rather than deny treatment to some—even when the half
treatment is ineffective.
    The doctor must have a moral character if healing is to occur, and
to fail to respect the community’s ways is to fail to develop moral character.