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Seinfeld's Good Samaritan Law Now Reality?

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-that-there-is-anything-wrong-with-that dept.

e3m4n writes "The fictitious 'good samaritan' law from the final episode of Seinfeld (the one that landed them in jail for a year) appears to be headed toward reality for California residents after the house passed this bill. There are some differences, such as direct action is not required, but the concept of guilt by association for not doing the right thing is still on the face of the bill."

3 of 735 comments (clear)

  1. No by scotch · · Score: 5, Informative

    I didn't have to read very far to find out that no, the law is not a reality.  Thanks, slashdot!

    --
    XML causes global warming.
  2. Did the submitter do their research at all? by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Good Samaritan" laws in the sense of Seinfeld already exist in many jurisdictions. It is called a "duty to rescue" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_to_rescue. Good Samaritan laws also exist, but in legal parlance that means something different, namely protection from liability of people trying to rescue or assist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law. The California law is a variant duty to rescue. This isn't anything new. Seinfeld didn't do their research and apparently neither did the submitter of this post or the editors.

  3. Is-ought problem by SpeedyDX · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just because it is the case that the bystander effect is normal doesn't mean it ought to be the case that it is normal. This is a very common logical fallacy in moral philosophy called the is-ought problem as it was well articulated by David Hume. The gist of it is that you cannot take descriptive statements as premises and come to a prescriptive conclusion.

    The reason why there are such laws is because we feel that we should have a moral responsibility to help those who are in immediate life-threatening danger when we are in a position to help them without (too much) personal sacrifice.