We’ve all heard the age-old Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you wish to be done to you.”
However, in the lawsuit culture we live in today, are the potential legal ramifications from helping out another person worth the altruistic personal benefits we hope to gain?
This is where the good Samaritan laws come into play.
These are legal protections put in place to defend a person in court who has been accused of rendering aid to someone who is in distress who is not a medical professional. It also protects the citizen if his or her help has, in some way, actually worsened the incident or medical emergency due to accidental ignorance to the situation.
Good Samaritan laws exist in all 50 states in some shape or form.
These laws are put in place to not only help assure people that they are protected in a courtroom, but to also encourage them to help a stranger if the need arises.
So, the question is, even though there is legal protection in practice, should people still feel obliged to help strangers who they do not know?
We are all free to make our own choices, so how do we decide?
On the one hand, basic human decency is something that is naturally instilled in us. We should want to be good people for the sake of being good people.
However, the most important person in your life should be yourself, and the best way to keep yourself in check is to keep your head down and mind your own business.
I think the balance scale should tip in favor of being the good Samaritan. If we want to see good in the world, we have to be the good.
Going out of your way to help someone in need is scary, but if the tables were turned, I would sincerely hope that someone else wouldn’t fear giving me a helping hand if I needed it.
We live in a culture where being rude, or as people like to call it “being blunt and honest,” is viewed as a revered personality trait and in this writer’s opinion, that’s not okay.
Break the stigma. Go out and be a good Samaritan today.
Give someone that extra helping hand that they really maybe desperately need. Feel obligated.
