[Avodah] pikuach nefesh

[David Riceman]

  RET:

<<The basic question was a plane who has a sick patient on boeard and

when should the
doctor insist on an emergency landing.
The basic answer was that for hilchot shabbat one violates shabbat if
the risk is more
then 1/1000 (R Elyashiv). Howver, if it involves a loss of money to
the airline company and other
passengers then one makes an emergency landing only if the danger is
greater the 5%,
i.e. mitzvot between people are more stringent then mitzvot between man and G-d.>>

My experience is that physicians lack expertise at doing these 
estimates.  What if the doctor doesn't know the probabilities, or 
doesn't know how to describe them numerically?

David Riceman