Lifeboat ethics

Lifeboat ethics is a metaphor for resource distribution proposed by the ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1974.

Hardin's metaphor describes a lifeboat bearing 50 people, with room for ten more. The lifeboat is in an ocean surrounded by a hundred swimmers. The "ethics" of the situation stem from the dilemma of whether (and under what circumstances) swimmers should be taken aboard the lifeboat.