@festivalnut & mmurfin87 - you are both articulating the classic justification for "good samaritan" laws (there's an episode of Seinfeld about that).

The idea that inaction confers responsibility just as action does.

This flies in the face of one of the most important underpinnings of our concept of justice - mens rea.

This is why such laws are routinely struck down as being immoral, among other reasons.

The "good samaritan" concept is typically championed by those of a 'collectivist' persuasion, under the banner of 'social justice' - where the essential dignity of individual humanity is degraded into a statistical function, and people are no more than a herd to be administered with a view to balancing such a function so that an elitist societal ideal can be achieved.

Choose your bedfellows wisely