Feat first isn't the ideal attitude for climbers

That bonding also explains, in part, why physicians tell us they have much more difficulty withdrawing treatment than withholding it, even though both are justified and the ethics of each situation is the same. In withdrawing treatment, they must breach that bond; in withholding it, the bond is not established.

You will notice that I haven't asked yet: Could Sharp's life have been saved? That's because the affronts to ethics and values are present regardless of the answer to that question.

It brings to mind that we now teach medical students that it's wrong to tell patients: "There's nothing we can do for you." Although that may well be true in terms of curing the patient, it is never true in relation to caring for them. Even if Sharp couldn't be saved, he could have been cared for as well as was possible in the circumstances.

Now, Sharp's predicament may have been been largely his own fault; he seems to have taken clearly unwarranted risks in not being properly prepared. But that does not excuse or justify failure to respond to his plight as best one could. That would be like saying that people who develop illness as a result of what are seen as lifestyle choices should not have access to publicly funded health care. That would be unethical.

The ethics of what we and others do or don't do must be put in context or it is just moralising, and most of us will never know, from first-hand experience, the context of "the roof of the world". But if we are to be ethical in our discussion, we must keep in mind the truism that good facts are essential to good ethics, especially to our subsequent ethical judgments.

We admire people such as climbers for their courage, fortitude and willingness to struggle and suffer. Never to give up, no matter what the odds. These are all manifestations of the best of the human spirit and they give us hope that we can nurture the same traits in ourselves to bring out the best in ourselves and others.

The problem in this case is that we sense there may have been a loss of humanity, a loss of soul. It seems that courage, fortitude and willingness to struggle and suffer would have been most powerfully manifested by turning away from the summit rather than moving towards it.