Okay, so, in short I have a character, Ellowyn who tries to do the right thing, but had to sacrifice a little girl with tuberculosis to bring someone she loved back to life. Her argument was that the girl would die soon anyway. Later in the story she is in the same situation only now she can save a little working class boy by sacrificing herself. The character proposing the choice is using the argument that Ellowyn is quite old and the boy is still very young. In the end she ends up getting sacrificed, but should I have her catch TB from the little girl beforehand, strengthening the argument for her sacrifice, or is it too on the nose?
Too on the nose and then it might weaken her sacrifice as maybe she would want to die to end her illness.
Ish. Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. At present roughly a third of the world's population is infected, but only 5-10% of those infected will develop the classic, consumptive sort of tuberculosis so romanticized by Victorians. Assuming your character is a relatively healthy adult with a normal immune system, it could take decades for the disease to present itself, if at all, and given the amount of pandemics going around at the time (cholera, influenza, etc.) it's possible, or maybe even likely, that it wouldn't be the characters cause of death. Not saying you can't or shouldn't just something to think about.
Welp, that I didn't know. Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll end up changing the disease that the little girl is dying from into something more thematically appropriate anyway and this time around I'll do a bit more research.
Yep--a situation where he argues, "But she'd have been dead in thirty years anyway!" sort of undermines his justification.
As she is dying who but the little girl is the one to take her soul to, heaven or hell whatever you decide.
