Quote:
Originally posted by IvySpice
If I were responsible for the moral guidance of those young men -- if I were their parents, say -- I'd tell them that they had an ethical obligation to notice a person self-destructing in their midst and try to do something to help her. No question, that's the only right thing to do in that situation, even though there's no legal obligation to do it.
But the fact that people should have helped her doesn't take away her responsibility for her own death. You can't leap off a bridge assuming that someone's going to catch you.
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Actually, there is a legal obligation. First, she was underage. Any member of the organization who was there drinking with her that night (who is 21 or older) has the legal requirement not to provide alcohol to a minor or they are liable for the consequences(and my guess is that the state is right now looking at the evidence and deciding if they want to prosecute whomever purchased the alcohol with at least contributing to delinquency and/or possibly contributory negligence in her death). It is a risk people take all the time, but it is a chance they want to take, so with that goes consequences if you get caught.
Also, if any one of them suspected she was in a life-threatening situation, or questioned her health (as in thought the line may have been crossed from drunk to coma), many jurisdictions have laws requiring someone to at least contact proper help (anonymous 9-1-1 call, for example). I don't know about CO, but I know many have laws to prevent people from just walking by a person bleeding out on the street (not that it is really enforced much -- I think usually the state is hoping people will do the right thing).