JOURNAL

Hello! Yes, it's me again. Actually, I've come to say farewell. I have been called by my people to return home. I must tell you how much I have gained from all your efforts and attention to my quest for knowledge about humans. You have been immensely helpful. I will carry this knowledge back to my home, where it can be used by all the beings of my likeness. There is one final task however that I would like to seek your assistance on.

In my homeland, a problem has emerged that requires our most urgent attention. For some unknown reason, five of our beings have suddenly developed a very rare kidney disease. Our medical experts tell us each of these five beings will die if they do not receive a kidney machine. Unfortunately, we only have one machine. As we are a small nation, we do not have the resources to equip all five with the machines they need. The dilemma we face is to decide which of these five beings should get the kidney machine. We must choose one.

This dilemma has caused tremendous havoc in our society. As this type of problem appears much more often in your human society, I believe you can help us to settle this. Please find enclosed a profile of each of the five kidney machine candidates.

The following is a list of important pieces of information that you may need to consider.

a) The success of the kidney machine is greatest when the patient has no other types of diseases and is under 40 years of age.

b) Each of the five candidates included here is assumed to have equal chance of remaining alive if allowed to use the machine.