Quote Originally Posted by Sir Moody
its the wrong question - i asked a similar question back at school in a Humanities debate on Morality - mine was far clearer

"your a doctor in a hospital, you have 2 strangers are brought in near death and only you can save them. The first is a Rich young white woman with no family, the Second is a poor Middle aged black Father of two. They have both an equal chance of surviving the treatment and you only have enough Time to save one - who do you chose?"

during the course of the next 5 minutes not one student failed to chose one of the 2 for a multitude of reasons but not one treated them equally - the only answer of course is they both have an equal right to life and the only way to decide while treating them equally is to flip a coin
While they both have the same right to live, it could be argued that from a more general point of view, helping the father will also help his children and thus will increase the welfare of society. While they are both equal, the 'rights' of other people (the children) can also influence the decision.