May I register a mild note of unease over your editorial attack (“Service replaces the creed of greed”, 4 April) on what you call “rationalist judgements” about the value of one life compared with another, ­for instance by prioritising the young over the old?

Doctors in intensive care wards are already having to make agonisingly difficult decisions about whose lives to prioritise in the context of a shortage of ventilators and overwhelming pressure on staff. Much as we would like every life always to be treated as of equal and infinite value, as it is by God, I fear that this is an unattainable luxury in the current crisis and I don’t think what the medical profession are having to face should be described in these terms. 

It is clear that many, and not least many of us who are over 65, feel that we should be prioritising the young over the elderly. One such was the 73-year-old Italian priest who gave up his ventilator so that a younger patient could have it. Surely he was not guilty of “rationalist judgement” but rather carrying out an act of kindness and self-sacrifice, in the conviction that he had enjoyed a long and full life and that it was more important that someone with potentially many more years ahead of them should be given the chance to live.