Summary Of Can The Law Make Us Be Decent? By Jay Sterling Silver

There are times when people are put into a position in which they must choose between helping others or only worrying about themselves. Ethical responsibility is defined as the obligation to morally act in order to guarantee a person is in good physical and emotional health. People show how ethically responsible they are when their own safety is disregarded in order to put the public before them. An action is ethically responsible if the act is done out of someone’s own intention. In the article titled, “Can the Law Make Us Be Decent?,” written by Jay Sterling Silver, the author states that there should be a federal law that requires people to provide assistance to others in need and offers protection to the helper if an unintentional injury

In particular, a benefit that would result from the law is that it will encourage citizens to take action and help the individuals that are in desperate need. When people begin to make better choices and become involved, many innocent lives will be saved. In addition to this, the article “If Decency Doesn’t, Law Should Make Us Samaritans” by Gloria Allred and Lisa Bloom, the authors assert that “The real reason individuals do not reach out is because they feel disconnected from strangers in need... If each of us recognized a moral responsibility to come to the aid of others, we would all gain the benefits of a stronger and safer community” (Allred and Bloom 2). This quote says that people do not help others in need because they are not close to each other but if a federal law was created that said they were obligated to give assistance to those in imminent danger, everyone would benefit from it and communities would be much safer. Despite the fact that someone who is in a crisis and is in need of help might be a stranger, that should be no excuse for one to not lend a hand. For example, car accidents occur every day. Drivers that pass by them have the choice of either pulling over to help them or ignoring it and going on with their life. Little do they know, the person in the accident could be severely injured, but this person

If the Good Samaritan Law was created, people who put their emotional or physical fear before their morality would be forced to deal with the consequences of putting their lives first. In situations where a person is injured and in need of medical attention, people fear helping since it might lead to an unintentional injury which makes them hesitant of rendering assistance. As a result, these people would be punished for an obstacle they can not control. They might believe that Silver’s argument is unfair because the law also means people with disabilities would be penalized as well. For instance, citizens that have physical or mental disabilities that keep them from helping would be punished for an incapacity that is not in their own hands. Although many will think that this is true, if enforced, the law will help people become accustomed to helping others in crises. A situation like this is indicated in the short story “And of Clay Are We Created” written by Isabelle Allende. One of the main characters, Rolf Carle, finds a girl named Azucena stuck under mud during an earthquake. Allende writes “During those first hours Rolf Carle exhausted all the resources of his ingenuity to rescue her. He struggled with poles and ropes, but