Could a 'Good Samaritan' law help China become more compassionate?
The Good Samaritan of Biblical lore was different than you and me: He was able to help without the fear of being sued.
Disturbing footage of an unattended Chinese girl being run over twice and ignored by 18 witnesses has shed unflattering light on China鈥檚 civil society. Two-year-old Xiao Yueyue (which translates as Little Joy in Chinese), daughter of two migrant worker parents, died on Oct. 21 in a Guangdong hospital, eight days after the horrific incident.
Disapproving fingers are being pointed in various directions: from the disintegration of society鈥檚 morality to the government鈥檚 neglect of protecting civil liberties. Yueyue鈥檚 unexpected death has revived a fierce international debate over Good Samaritan laws.
If you missed the final "Seinfeld" episode, Good Samaritan laws protect people who assist victims of injury or crime. as Wikipedia puts it.
Prior to the broadcasting of Yueyue鈥檚 tragedy, several sensational lawsuits had embittered the public toward performing heroic deeds for strangers. Specifically, Mr. Peng was ordered to pay the damages to the elder woman under the judge鈥檚 logic that the man wouldn鈥檛 have helped her unless he was guilty of injuring her in the first place. Some litigators suggest that lawsuits of this nature Perhaps had the woman not belonged to the poorer class, in need of money, no such lawsuit would have been filed.
A recent China Daily poll reveals that approximately 87 percent of Chinese citizens are unlikely to aid an elderly person who has fallen in the street because they want to avoid being blamed for the accident. Xie Jing, a communications professor at Fudan University, told the newspaper.
While Good Samaritan Laws in the United States are not federally imposed, the largest jurisdictions in the United States 鈥� , , and 鈥� have statutes that shield voluntary assistants from liability in the case of an accident. Yet 鈥淕ood Samaritans鈥� in California and may be prosecuted if they don鈥檛 act in the medical interest of the victim. In 2007 a woman who pulled a friend out of a wrecked car, leaving the friend paralyzed, was liable to civil damages in California because
One explanation for not imposing more collective responsibility on individuals: separation of morals and law.
"Our common law has always refused to transmute moral duties into legal duties,鈥� Virginia Law Professor Charles O. Gregory noted to Time Magazine in 1965, when the prompted a national debate about civic duty. Today, protecting people from liability for trying to save a life, according to HeartSafe America.
In Canada, too, each province has its own set of laws concerning Good Samaritan acts. Quebec鈥檚 Charter of Rights gives citizens a "duty to rescue:" individuals must assist anyone in jeopardy, unless there is reasonable evidence that it would cause danger to himself or a third party. Abstaining from helping someone is not considered a criminal offense, since it comes from the provincial level. Yet the majority of provinces have adopted a version of the Good Samaritan Law, most of which provide some form of protection for voluntary passers-by from liability for the victim鈥檚 damages, unless it can be proven that the damages were caused by the gross negligence of the person.
In France, witnesses to a person in distress can be arrested . . The French logic follows that a witness is a participant in the crime if he/she does nothing to prevent it.
In spite of the outrage bubbling in China over society鈥檚 apparent moral decline, the majority of the population is reluctant to follow in France鈥檚 footsteps. According to one online poll, Most claim they don鈥檛 want moral acts to be legally enforced. With restrictions on individual freedom already so tightly monitored, the Chinese appear weary to have one more government mandate imposed.
It took the death of a two-year-old girl to bring greater awareness to what it means to do the right thing. Perhaps what is most disturbing about Yueyue鈥檚 death is the realization that an underlying current of fear has become inherently attached to what should be a visceral reaction of compassion. Had the Samaritan described by Luke in the New Testament been bound by today鈥檚 laws, perhaps he would not have been so good.
鈥� first appeared on , a blog published by .
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