I don't know. If you're right in the middle of the path of a beam and that beam would normally go straight through the ship without stopping, then I think the player has to die.
Having automatic beam outs also gets too complicated because it completely messes with how the game has to handle do-overs because it's all now in context of the environment.
Allowing players to die because they're in the wrong room at the wrong time is too delicious a way to get an awesome near random victory. It adds a huge amount of flavor to how things can play out.
Imagine an enemy player scanning you while they are some how unscannable to you (cloak, sure). They have your ship plans (in-game), and they see the captain's cabin is occupied with a life sign of your sex and species. They target everything on that location, and put all power into weapons for a huge alpha strike. They fire and kill the occupant, except the occupant was your lover (you're totally gay dude)! You were in the gym for a morning jog!! It's time to kill ass!!!
