email article Welcome to Ethics Consult -- an opportunity to discuss, debate (respectfully), and learn together. We select an ethical dilemma from a true, but anonymized, patient care case, and then we provide an expert's commentary. Yes: 40% No: 60% . U.S. law recognizes very few circumstances in which people owe duties to provide assistance to others without voluntary agreements to do so. Certain relationships do impose obligations, such as financial support for spouses and children. Most states require individuals who begin to help a stranger during an emergency to continue rendering such assistance, to the best of their abilities, until help arrives -- as "partial rescues" run the risk of scaring off other would-be rescuers. Otherwise, only a handful of states compel innocent bystanders to offer emergency assistance.