Which Half Did You Kill?

A renowned Harvard surgeon was invited to a lesser- known medical school to describe a new technique he'd used to treat hundreds of patients. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, "Did you have any controls?" Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, "Do you mean did I not operate on half the patients?" The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, "Yes, that's what I had in mind." Then the visitor's fist really came down as he thundered, "Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their death." It was absolutely silent then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, "Which half?"

A renowned Harvard surgeon gives a lecture about treating hundreds of patients with a new surgical technique. When a student asks whether there were controls, the surgeon misunderstands the question as asking whether he operated on only half the patients, then insists that not operating on half would have doomed them; the punchline is the student's quiet question, “Which half?”, exposing the horrifying implication of the experiment. It is shared as a dark medical joke about flawed experiments, overconfidence, and unsettling logic.

• @rzeczyzabawne / 14949 2024-02-06