The ethics of climbing Everest

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TarfHead

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"The triumph of mountaineer Mark Inglis, who last week became the first double amputee to climb Everest, has been soured by the news he left a dying climber to his fate."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5016536.stm

After reading Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air, I then read a number of other books about high altitude climbing (e.g. Touching the Void). This must have had some effect on me cos when I heard the story above, my first reaction was that his/their reaction was rational. Now I'm wondering why I thought that.
 
But in today's (London) Times there's a report of a rescue [of a different man] by a group who halted their climb to do so (although another group went past).
“I imagine you are surprised to see me here,” the man whispered as Dan Mazur, 44, bent down to check for signs of life... Mr Hall, 50, had collapsed, suffering from altitude sickness, shortly after achieving his lifelong ambition to reach the top of Everest on Thursday morning. His sherpas had battled for nine hours to try to save him but eventually left, believing him to be the eleventh recorded fatality on Everest this grim climbing season...Mr Mazur immediately abandoned his ascent and, with his paying client, tended Mr Hall, feeding him hot tea, giving him oxygen and radioing for help. Myles Osborne, 26, a British postgraduate student from Warsash, Hampshire, was one of four climbers who had paid Mr Mazur $30,000 (£16,200) to act as guide to the summit. His fundraising trip for Naomi House hospice in Sutton Scotney, near Winchester, was cut short by the rescue. Mr Mazur said that soon afterwards two Italian climbers came past. They did not stop to assist and went on to complete their climb.
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