Good Samaritan Law Vs Good Samaritans

Throughout life, one is to see many people they don’t know Humans walk past each other and no interaction occurs. Depending on a particular situation one might be in, it can change the ability to react, help and care for a stranger in need. In the article “We are all bystanders”, by Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner, it shows how in certain settings people don’t act to help another, even though one might want to. “Everyday Stuart would board the bus and a couple of boys would tease him. I would sit silent and watch. I wish I would’ve helped” (Marsh/Keltner 3). People develop a feeling that prevents them from caring for strangers. This is due to a thought of peer pressure or judgement that could be given to an individual for taking action.

When there is an emergency, why is taking out our phones to take a picture or video the very first thing we want to do? Why do we casually walk by a person who is in trouble, and go about our business as if we did not anyone? Why do we not help or act when someone is getting, but instead we just stand in a crowd and watch? Why do we bury our moral instincts during emergencies? “We witness a problem, consider positive action, and respond by doing nothing. Why do we not help in these situations and put our moral instincts in shackles” (Keltner & Marsh, 2017). We as people are bystanders to the world around us daily, but the question is why? The answer to all the “why” questions is the bystander effect.

While walking down a city street, alarming cries for help ring out through the air, and it is observed that an individual that appears to be living well has a helpless, poor victim held down, relentlessly beating them to the ground and taking what little they have left for their own advantage and benefit. What would be the right thing to do; run away or try to help, either by stepping in or calling the proper authorities? The morally ethical thing to do would be to help and do what has to be done to stand up for what is right. This same general scenario is happening not too far from this country, where organ brokers are victimizing innocent and poverty-stricken mothers and fathers trying to find a way to provide and get

In the essay “Thirty-Eight who saw Murder didn’t call the Police”, Martin Gansberg describes how selfish and inconsiderable some people can be. He claims that society should be more involved in taking action when seeing violent or life threatening events occurring in their communities.

What is the “Good Samaritan rule and when does it apply. A “Good Samaritan is an individual who usually goes out of their way to help someone or somebody in a time of need. This can be carried out in the time of an emergency on a voluntary basis. Under this rule a person is not legally obligated to render aid to someone unless they are in unconscious state and cannot respond.

“Good Samaritan” doctrine, which imposes a legal duty to help or call for help for imperiled strangers. American bystander rule is there’s no legal duty to rescue or summon help for someone who’s in danger even if the bystander risks nothing by helping. Only a few jurisdictions follow the “Good Samaritan” rule, nearly all follow the approach of the American bystanders rule.

The study by Darley and Latane leaves society with the knowledge that everyone who is witnessing an emergency is most likely thinking the same thing “someone else will call for help or has already” so “Always act as if you are the only person there” (Darely & Latane, 1968). The concept of situationism is the driving force behind bystander effect. Situationism is “social behavior is, to a larger extent than people commonly realize, a response to people’s social context, not a function of individual personality” (Fiske, 2010, p. 7). Individuals first have to decide if they are witnessing an emergency. Then they need to decide if they have a responsibility to act which is when situationism comes in. If there are hundreds of witnesses each individual see the situation from a different perspective and responsibility to act is diffused among the crowd. On the other hand if one individual sees an emergency and believes there is no one else to help the responsibility rests on him or her. The context of the situation will determine how an individual will react, but people should consider the reality of everyone believing someone else will react and no one reacting. Kitty Genovese would still be alive if even one person would have called the cops when the first attack started.

In the Chapter “In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing,” from the book Opening Skinner’s Box, by Lauren Slater. Slater describes a crime scene in which the witnesses didn’t do anything to help a woman that was being stabbed, she also tells us about a few experiments that were conducted in regards to how people would react when help is needed in certain situations, will they report the situation to anyone or just go about their business like nothing is going on. Calling for help or assisting someone in a time of need isn’t always something that people do as an immediate reaction, especially when there’s a crowd of people present.

The Good Samaritan law should be put in place to prevent situations such as Mr. Tale-Yax’s from happening in the future. However, if the law is put into action it would require a few alterations. People shouldn’t be required to help physically. In my opinion, everyone who owns a cellular device should be required by law to contact the police in any dangerous situation. A person’s own morals and their mental state should allow them to decide for themselves whether or not they think they should step in and help.

Humans are typically very emotional. Sometimes, we even mess with our emotions on purpose, like watching a sad movie, or going on a rollercoaster. This is all great, but crying over a dog dying in a movie, yet not caring enough to help a person in need, isn’t. Seeing someone in need should cause us to feel enough pain for them that we want to do anything we can to help. Walking on by “should insult our values”, knowing that we could’ve done something (Allred and Bloom 334). Being worried about your own safety is understandable. However, not helping someone because you are scared they might sue you is just selfish. People are scared because “under American law, liability generally exists for action, not inaction” (Allred and Bloom 335). We may be liable for helping or possibly at financial risk, but that is a chance that should be taken to save a life. Changing the law would allow people to aid others without feeling

In the world, it is so easy to walk past an individual that is in distress without even knowing that there is something wrong. People notice something and expect the individual in front of or behind them to assist the distressed, and it happens more than often. For example, driving past an individual that is stranded on the side of the road is so simple. It is much easier to drive past than assist, especially when driving on a city street. Many people think about helping, and want to help, but they just do not.

Ethics of Emergencies “The Ethics of Emergencies” explains Ayn Rand’s radical and unique view of altruism. She believes that there are 4 consequences of altruism, all of which are negative. These, simply put, are lack of self-esteem, lack of respect for others, a pessimistic view of life, and an indifference to ethics. She says that altruism hinders acts of true benevolence, and instead people act out of an obligation to others that has been internalized over time. Rand then argues that one should only volunteer to help strangers in emergency situations, and even then, only when the risk to one’s own life is less than the risk to the stranger’s. Rand advocates action in such emergencies because of the high value of human life. But Rand

This illustrates that as long as we are not in calamitous jeopardy of being harmed or threatened, we have a moral obligation to help out others. The essay question contains the word “morality”; defined by the Black’s Law Dictionary as “pertaining or relating to the conscience or moral sense or to the general principles of right conduct”. Morals may be based on each perspective and their conscience, thus one may argue that their state of mind and their moral upbringing does not conform to those of others thus they see it as no moral obligation to assist other human beings; whether in the same country or not. But it should be realized that we live in a world that contains so many life threatening circumstances and other events that require assistance from others; therefore as human beings, we cannot sit back and watch as these negative circumstances continue to rapidly unfold.

Social and cultural pressures, as well as beliefs about the self will influence helping behaviors. In an emergency, both informational and normative social influences are impacting whether an individual helps another. People look for queues from others in order to determine if the current situation requires action to be taken. Also, people will do things simply to be accepted by the group (Aronson et al., 2013). In any

The duties of individuals to protect society from individual mistakes or accidents using the Good Samaritan laws generally provide basic legal protection for those who assist a person who is injured or in danger. Good Samaritan acts are laws designed to protect people who provide assistance at the site of an emergency. In essence, these laws protect the Good Samaritan from liability if unintended consequences result from their assistance and therefore they cannot be sued. However, in a few states, legislation referred to as duty to rescue laws have been enacted which requires people in health care to stop and help the injured. Also, Individuals have a moral responsibility to protect society referring to the duty that individuals and groups have to act in accordance with the moral (respectable/virtuous) principles that are important to their social communities and to humanity at large.