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From: <Outfit3029_at_aol.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] How would you deal with it ....Conditions are Relative to On...
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 11:46:09 EDT
In a message dated 8/18/00 2:21:28 PM !!!First Boot!!!, 
sailboatrestorations_at_worldnet.att.net writes:

<<  You are walking right past the float.
 All you have to do is kick the float in as you walk past, and the victim
 will survive.  If you don't kick the float in, the victim will die.  Do you
 have an obligation to kick the float in?"  The answer, of course, was "no."
 Now, before everyone jumps on me -- I don't make these stupid rules. >>

 Spoken like a true lawyer. 
   "Do you have an obligation to kick the float in?"
   Legal obligation, maybe not. Moral obligation, let's hope so.
   If you are trained to handle such emergencies, your "obligation" may be 
greater.

 Bruce McC
 WEO
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From: SRI <sailboatrestorations_at_worldnet.att.net>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] How would you deal with it ....Conditions are Relative to On...
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 12:56:42 -0000
> Spoken like a true lawyer.

Hm.  I assume that was just a joke and not intended as an insult.


>   "Do you have an obligation to kick the float in?"
>   Legal obligation, maybe not. Moral obligation, let's hope so.


Law and morality are different things.  I completely agree that the moral
obligation is greater.  I did not say that I would not "kick the float in."
I certainly would.  I was merely offering, for the benefit of folks here on
PW, a small amount of information regarding the legal side of the scenario.
There is, after all, a legal side, and it could be important.

And BTW, it may be worth noting that one of the good things about the law --
and particularly about the law I was referring to -- is that it *does* leave
moral decisions to each individual.  I'd be very worried if it did not.

Mark

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