Selfish mainland Chinese society needs good Samaritan laws, critics say

A young man jumps into a river to save a family of three who are drowning. He helps them reach the river bank but becomes trapped in the water and cannot climb out. As his strength fails, bystanders urge the family to help the person who just rescued them. But they walk away, with the woman in the group saying it is none of their business as the man drowns.

The mainland has no law governing good Samaritans. Whether it needs one has been debated with renewed intensity after Xiao Yueyue, age two, was hit by two vehicles and ignored by a dozen people as she lay bleeding in Foshan , Guangdong, last year. She died in hospital.

Since then, national lawmakers have had the opportunity to draft a law that specifically addresses good-Samaritan acts. They declined to do so, and in its place, the State Council issued a circular last month that laid out stronger protection of the rights of citizen rescuers.

Academics expect the circular will help standardise the patchwork of regulations that exist at the local or provincial level. More than 60 provinces and cities have issued their own rules or guidelines in recent years on rewards for people who are injured while trying to help others, according to The Beijing News.

But local regulations were often poorly implemented, said Jiang Mingan , a law professor at Peking University. Good Samaritans sometimes ended up disabled and without a job after being hurt while helping someone, Jiang said. "Our heroes are hurt not only physically, but also mentally," he said.