Posted by akc on August 23, 2001, at 13:06:36
In reply to Re: Duty to Rescue, posted by susan C on August 23, 2001, at 12:17:47
Let me make a disclaimer here -- I'm not saying you shouldn't help -- I'm just saying the law doesn't require it. What has happened under the U.S. common law system is that if you help, but then screw it up, a person can sue you for being negligent. So people may advise you (as it sounds like happened in this course) that you would be better of not to help. What a cold-hearted society we have become if we don't help each other because we are afraid of being sued. There are states who are passing statutes to protect people from these types of lawsuits. However, professionals are still held to a higher duty of care even in most places with this type of statute in place. But note -- even where places have these types of statutes that protect a person from being sued if they help a person in need and mess it up, there is still no duty to rescue. So the solution is to just not help.
This is the ethical debate that occurs in law school. What type of society is it that we need a law on the book to force people to help each other? What type of society is it that we need a law on the book to protect each other from a lawsuit when we have tried to help one another? Where is the line? You see a person walking on the side of a busy highway. Is that person just going to get gas for his car? Or is he suicidal about to walk out into traffic? As a female, do I pull over and offer help? Maybe he is a serial rapist? How do I judge? If he is suidical and I don't stop, and there is a law on the books, should I be arrested and thrown in jail for not helping? Which car passing by is the one who should have known? Now this is maybe a slightly absurd demonstration, but it makes the point I think -- it is hard to legislate this type of ethical behavior -- this reaching out to people in need of help. Personally, I think our first response should be to help those in need.
But then, being the good law professor I am, I have to argue the other side of this ongoing debate regarding people who are suicidal. I am nowhere qualified to help someone who is actively suicidal. I look back to the evening that I was suicidal myself. I went to an AA meeting. I shared -- I told those folks I was suicidal. Most ignored it. A few didn't. Of those few, I had a few try to counsel me -- as in don't take my meds (true oldtimers, don't put any pills in your body), etc. Only one person tried to get me to see I needed to go to the hospital. What I needed was someone who knew how to handle a suicidal person to speak with me. The person trying to get me to the hospital had the right idea.
So how will I "rescue" a person who is suicidal? I believe my duty with someone who is actively suicidal is simple -- I have to do anything I can to get that person to talk to someone who has the training to handle that or to get that person to go to an ER.
akc
> AKC,
>
> Interestingly my son took First Responder First aid, for Red Cross and Mountineering. Basically what to do when you are three days from anywhere. I will have to ask him if they talked about mental illness issues, but it did come up ubout people hiking out for help. They passed someone with a cell phone and that person did not and did not have to help, he said he would be liable if he did offer. It required the people to keep walking for two days and return with help.
>
> Another interesting bit, is if you see an accident on the side of the road, with the police officers waving traffic through, even if you are trained, you do not stop to offer help.
>
> There is a reason we pay our taxes.
>
> And sometimes you can only do so much.
>
> A retired Mighty Mouse.
>
>
> > Actually, this is not true. Almost all states do not have good Samaritan laws. You can stand by and watch someone die -- whether by their own hand or by accident -- and not come to their aid. It is one of the first principles you study in law school -- law professors love it because of the ethics behind it. Why is it that in the U.S. we don't have such statutes, whereas must European countries do? I don't know where you live Sal, so maybe your state or community has some type of rescue statute, but generally in America, there is no duty to rescue.
> >
> > AKC
> >
> > > Everyone is technically licensed to prevent suicide-- In fact, in the U.S., you can be imprisoned or sued for not trying to prevent the death of someone who is known to be suicidal!
> > >
> > > > I say, let's hear from the only one of us *licensed* to do this.
> > > >
> > > > Zo
poster:akc
thread:1753
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20010718/msgs/1772.html