From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Hurricane Katrina and Medical Choice in Extreme Emergencies.

Hello again, I'm Armin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most. Four years ago, New Orleans Memorial Medical Center was shut down by

Katrina, and desperate circumstances led to questions of life and death. If some patients had to be left

behind, who should be first for evacuation, the healthiest of those closest to dying? Should those

likely to die be euthanized?

Who should make the sort of decision doctors don't like to talk about? Are there protocols in place?

If, for example, the U.S. is hit with an influenza pandemic this fall? We'll hear how the Katrina disaster has shaped future planning.

Is the public being kept informed.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine

T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated to the idea that all

people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. Information at gatesfoundation.org.

Hello again, Mormon-Analny, back with To the Point. The U.S. is faced with a possible flu epidemic

this fall and plans are

being made for extreme emergencies. If medical facilities are overwhelmed, who gets access first?

Who makes that decision? What can be learned from what happened in New Orleans after Katrina?

On reporter's notebook, President Obama's commanding general says success can be achieved in Afghanistan,

will that require a troop

surge? First, this news update, the so-called station fire near Los Angeles has doubled in size to

...