That sinister expression means that if hospital resources are limited, for example if only one donor heart becomes available for transplant, or if a surgeon has time to operate on only a certain number of patients, American hospitals have an explicit policy of giving preference to younger patients over older patients on the grounds that younger patients are considered more valuable to society because they have more years of life ahead of them,
这种政策的表述听起来充满恶意： 如果医院资源是有限的， 例如，如果只有一个捐助者的心脏 可供移植， 或者，如果一个外科医生 在一定时间中只能为少数几个患者做手术， 美国的医院有明确的政策， 要优先给年轻的患者 而不是老年患者， 理由是年轻患者被认为 对社会更有价值 因为他们还有更多年的生活在等待他们，