This dates back many years, to March 1989. I was transporting a heart for transplant, together with a doctor and nurse, from the southwest of England to Papworth Hospital near Cambridge. Because it was the middle of the night, the only open runway nearby was a USAF Alconbury.
As I approached, I was asked a question which is commonplace in the States, but not used at all over here:
“How many souls on board?”
I could only answer:
“That is a very tricky question, which philosophers have struggled with for centuries.”
Timothy Nathan
