A Question of Ethics

[caemin]

You are walking home. You come acroos a horrible 5-car accident (sp?)
and there are many injured people, moaning and crying, everywhere.

Do you stop and help?

Pro: Morally, you have an obligation to aid another human being. After all, without it, there wouldn't be good samaritans. Plus, a large amount of guilt would occur if someone died, someone you saw, and didnt help.

Con: Legally, you shouldn't. If you pull someone out, even if it save their life, you could give them an additional injury and open yourself up to a lawsuit. Also how are you, a civillian, to assume authority and aid without training. The question doesn't say your trained in any medical or rescue field, so how can you assume whats best for these people.

What do you think?  

[NOCTVRNVS]

I think, it's pitiful that we live in a society where there exists even the question.

It's actually a co-incidence, because yesterday while in the car with my father (it was quite a storm) the car ahead of us slid, went into a roll, and turned over about a dozen times until it landed in a nearby ditch and came to a stop.

There were a lot of people who stopped nearby (and even more who didn't) but no-one dared to even help. Me and dad got out of the car immediately and went down to help the driver and whoever else might have been in the vehicle. It was only one man, but he was literally about 400 pounds and the car was upside-down and so badly mangled he couldn't fit through the door quite well. He was in a state of extreme panic and it looks like he managed to unbuckle himself, but couldn't open the door. Luckily for him both me and my father are pretty exceptionally strong so we were able to pry the door open. He couldn't get out by himself so we dragged him out which was a pretty exhausting task despite all the adrenaline. There was a LOT of blood inside and outside the car, and people were starting to cry up on the side of the road. The guy might have been unconscious. We pulled him out of the wreck and into the snow where it looked like he was bleeding pretty bad and not doing much moving. Just about that time the ambulances showed up, God bless those guys, and I helped them lift the guy up on that little carrying-bed-type-thing.

Not sure if people took pictures or what but a few people called my house this morning and left messages, they must have written a story about it in today's paper, I'm really not sure.

All in all, I just can't believe people are so useless. If someone needs help I don't even THINK about it, you don't really have time to sit there weighing the pros and cons, fortune favours the bold, and God protects those who in turn protect men.  

[emeraldgreen3]

AS AN ACTIVE CITIZEN OF MY SOCIATY I WOULD CALL THE ABULANCE & TRY MY BEST TO STYBALIZE THE INJURED PEOPLE, BESIDES THEY CAN'T SUE ME I SAVED THEIR FORSAKEN LIVES!!!!!  

[NOCTVRNVS]

You'd think some one with such poor English would be trying to make their words as SMALL as possible, but no...  

[caemin]

emeraldgreen3

AS AN ACTIVE CITIZEN OF MY SOCIATY I WOULD CALL THE ABULANCE & TRY MY BEST TO STYBALIZE THE INJURED PEOPLE, BESIDES THEY CAN'T SUE ME I SAVED THEIR FORSAKEN LIVES!!!!!

Actually they can. That's what makes the world so great.  

[Efstathios]

caemin

You are walking home. You come acroos a horrible 5-car accident (sp?)
and there are many injured people, moaning and crying, everywhere.

Do you stop and help?

Pro: Morally, you have an obligation to aid another human being. After all, without it, there wouldn't be good samaritans. Plus, a large amount of guilt would occur if someone died, someone you saw, and didnt help.

Con: Legally, you shouldn't. If you pull someone out, even if it save their life, you could give them an additional injury and open yourself up to a lawsuit. Also how are you, a civillian, to assume authority and aid without training. The question doesn't say your trained in any medical or rescue field, so how can you assume whats best for these people.

What do you think?

Good samaritan laws protect you from being sued by someone you were trying to help regardless of whether or not you actually helped.

I cannot stand by when there is something I could do to help, even when there isn't anything I can do, you can bet I'll try my damndest.  

[xsparklersx]

NOCTVRNVS

You'd think some one with such poor English would be trying to make their words as SMALL as possible, but no...

ninja

rofl rofl rofl

wahmbulance


I loved that.

Anyways, there are, as people have said, good samaritan laws that keep people from suing you if you try to help.

I personally wouldn't think twice about helping someone in dire straits. I'd just do it. It's in my nature to help people. Heck, if I see my neighbor carrying a heavy box, I'll stop to give a hand without thinking about it. I don't think I've ever debated whether they're gonna try to sue me if the box drops and breaks a bone in their foot.

s**t happens. If you think about it too long, you'll be too late to help anyone. Better to have tried to help and failed than never to have tried at all.  

[WildCardJack]

Highest level of morality is doing whats right even if its agaisnt the law.
And thats what i'd do. Laws are created by flawed people, laws are flawed. You should follow the unless you know it's not right, then act as you see to be right. Chances are if it really is right no ones going to do anything to you. For this example: no one's going to arrest you for saving someone's life.  

[Isho Von Ra]

I would help out.

I just make sure no-one record my name. If you can't find me you can't sue me. biggrin  

[Theorem 69]

Isho Von Ra

I would help out.

I just make sure no-one record my name. If you can't find me you can't sue me. biggrin

lol, that's actually a very good point. Yes, there ARE laws to protect you when you help someone out of a bind, but if you're gonna be paranoid about any legal repercussions, then just don't give away any personal information.  

[Calixti]

Honestly? It would depend.

For one, I'm just over five feet tall and pathetically weak. I have trouble carrying a fifteen-pound box of kitty litter; I certainly wouldn't be able to drag a fully grown adult, or even another teenager, away from the scene of an accident, not without potentially harming them more.

For another, there's the matter of personal risk. If there's a fire and it's spreading, there's no ******** way I'm going to throw myself in there unless someone I personally know and care about is at immediate risk. And even then, it would be a case of weighing how much the person matters to me. If it were my mum, I would die to save her. My grandfather? Eh, not so much.

And as for the "moral obligation" to help someone, I really don't give a damn. Morals are relative, and mine quite likely differ from yours. There's some people I would be delighted to die painfully in a horrible accident because I feel they deserve it.  

[Asuka Inochi]

I, personally, would have no guilt if someone were to die. Because I don't know this person, therefore I feel no "obligation" to helping him. Were it someone I knew, which it's not in this situation, I would say "******** the law!", and I'd help. But why help someone that might be a complete a*****e? His life casts no reflection on me, so I needn't worry about "guilt".

I don't want to be a "hero"... because, eventually, they all become *****, or whatever the media twists them into. So, unless it actually beared notation to my life/lifestyle, I would not get involved.

Human nature does not state an "obligation" to help those in need. Considering "Natural Selection" states life in a more "survival of the fittest" way. So, if the person was not fit to survive, they should die.

I know this sounds "rude", or "evil", but this is me, and my opinion...  

[Israk]

From my personal experiences, I would not help this person, especially if I didn't know them. What have they ever done for me? Nothing, so why should I do something for them. Example, about three years ago I broke my leg skiing in the mountains, my cousin DID go tell the guy in the little shack by the lifts so he could radio help, but neither he nor my other cousin believed I was actually hurt, they believed I was over reacting, despite the fact that I could push forward my leg and from halfway down my shin to my foot, nothing moved, and it hurt ALOT to do so (but I was bored and kept dong it, looked cool). So would I help either of my cousins if something happened to them? Probably not, me and my one cousin ALWAYS fight, it's an unwritten pact.  

[Aelis Mikilai]

I'd help by staying on the sidelines and calling 911. ninja  

[daemonchylde]

i am cpr certified and by law i am required to help if itis known that i was there and someone found out i could be arrested for neglect. as for my morals of course i would help. i would be scared but i would help, thats why i am cpr certified! there are good samaritan laws in place that stop lawsuits like that.