The Good Samaritan

The other day I chanced upon a post about the Parable of the Good Samaritan that was shared by a Facebook friend. As the story goes, a traveler (who may or may not be Jewish), is beaten, robbed and left for dead along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. A priest and a Levite each pass by, but both avoid and ignore the man. Then a Samaritan comes along. Samaritans and Jews generally don't like each other, but the Samaritan stops and helps the man anyway. He bounds the man's wounds and pours oil and wine on it. Then he sets the man in his donkey and brings him to an inn. The next day, when he departed, he took out some coins and gave them to the innkeeper and says to him, "Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return".

Some of our local stories may have been derived from this parable. Remember that Fita TV commercial where a fairy gives the guy half a sports car in return for half a Fita? That was actually a parody. In the original story, a guy gives bread to a pulubi who turns out to be a fairy. In return for the guy's kindness, the fairy grants the guy three wishes. Jose dela Cruz, a Filipino writer and poet during the Spanish regime and more popularly known as Huseng Sisiw, probably was inspired by the Parable of the Good Samaritan when he thought of the leproso and ermitanyo of Mt. Tabor in his corrido, Ibong Adarna.

Today, the colloquial phrase "Good Samaritan" means someone who helps a stranger.

In legal terms, a "good samaritan" refers to someone who renders aid in an emergency to an injured person on a voluntary basis. Good Samaritan laws give the good samaritan immunity in case an unintentional injury is caused to the person he or she rescued. They are intended to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death.

It's a bit different in the Philippines. Here the law compels people to help others in need. Abandonment of person in danger is criminally punished. Under Art. 275 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), the penalty of arresto mayor shall be imposed upon:

"Any one who shall fail to render assistance to any person whom he shall find in an uninhabited place wounded or in danger of dying, when he can render such assistance without detriment to himself, unless such omission shall constitute a more serious offence.

Anyone who shall fail to help or render assistance to another whom he has accidentally wounded or injured.

Anyone who, having found an abandoned child under seven years of age, shall fail to deliver said child to the authorities or to his family, or shall fail to take him to a safe place."

Under Art. 365 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), failure to lend help on the spot to injured parties is punished as criminal negligence.





Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan
http://thelegallyinclined.blogspot.co.nz/2009/05/apathy-as-crime-abandonment-of-helpless.html
http://definitions.uslegal.com/g/good-samaritans/
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Good_Samaritan_law.html