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Duty to Rescue: Ethics vs. Law
By Malinda Sherwyn
The concept of a Duty to Rescue is rooted on ethics; most of us feel morally obligated to come to the rescue of a person in peril, and the greater the danger or more vulnerable the victim, the deeper our sense of obligation.
On February 25, 2011, Dr. Ruby Dillon took her then 6-year-old daughter to the emergency room at Hoag Hospital. The ER physician examined the minor and diagnosed “non-accidental” trauma consistent with sexual abuse. Child Protective Services (CPS) was made aware of the medical results as demanded by law.
Did CPS have a duty to rescue?
If a duty to rescue existed, did CPS honor its duty?
In general, there is no duty to rescue in tort law and a person or entity cannot be held liable unless (1) a legal duty was breached that (2) led to a known harm to a person. No legal duty, no negligence.
There are, however, a few exceptions to the general rule.
First, a defendant who creates a dangerous condition that places someone at risk creates along with it a duty to rescue the victim of that risk.
In August 2012, based on probable cause of suspected sexual abuse, the City of Tustin Police Department removed Dr. Ruby Dillon’s minor daughter from the home of the father and took her into protective custody out of fear that she may be in danger. CPS ordered the child returned to the father, the alleged abuser.
Thus, not only did CPS choose not to rescue the minor from her dangerous condition; it also created a dangerous condition when, by returning the minor to her abuser, CPS placed the minor at risk of further sexual abuse.
Second, a duty to rescue also arises if there exists a “special relationship” between the defendant and the victim. “Special relationships” arise when one party assumes responsibility for another; like a parent for a minor child, or a doctor for his patient. In law, the “special relationship” most at issue is the one between emergency response personnel and any member of the community that requires their assistance.
In early March 2011, CPS received a signed affidavit under penalty of perjury from the minor’s teacher (a mandated reporter) confirming the minor’s accusations of sexual abuse. CPS failed to interview the teacher.
In January 2012, the father lost his job and the minor tells law enforcement and CPS that the abuse is occurring almost every time she is at her father’s house. CPS insisted the minor should remain with her father.
On November 7, 2012, the Court appointed therapist (as a mandated reporter) contacted the child abuse registry to report a new allegation of sexual abuse by the father. The Tustin PD immediately sent an Officer to the minor’s school to interview her and removed her from her home into protective custody. CPS dismissed the reporting and had the child sent back to the father.
CPS was specifically created to rescue minors from dangerous situation. Their duty is to respond to reports of suspected child abuse and to act accordingly; that is, CPS are mandated by law to assume responsibility for minors at risk of abuse. Thus, a “special relationship” exists between CPS and Dr. Rubin Dillon’s daughter. In the three instances above, CPS failed to interview the minor’s teacher, ignored the minor’s allegations and dismissed reports by the Tustin Police. Therefore, CPS breached its duty to rescue Dr. Rubin Dillon’s minor daughter.
Iraq and Global Humanity: How to Make Peace and Stop Bloodshed?
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja
The global mankind is witnessing again live horror stories, daily bloodshed and misinformation re-enacting compulsion of evil and temptation of political domination by the few warlords to revisit Iraq’s decade-old sufferings of the common people and the ripple effects of the US-Britain aggression against Iraq. Piety and wickedness cannot be combined in one leadership character. Undoubtedly, global mankind is conscientious of how few warmongers had exercised individualistic absolutism to invade Iraq in 2003 under false pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction-WMD. The aim was a regime change to occupy and control the precious oil resources of Iraq. When the ISIS fighters are reportedly approaching the strategic oil sites and Baghdad, the US leadership arranged to evacuate 5,000 oil contractors stationed in Iraq after the Bush-led occupation of Iraq. All the new oil executives (probably including the Bush family) in Iraq were given legal immunity from prosecution by an executive order of George Bush. Analyzing the moral and psychological factors operating below the threshold of political consciousness, American leadership failed miserably to separate rationality of implied political power from wisdom.
Khaled Amayreh responds to vacuous claims by U.S. Consul-General in Jerusalem
By Khaled Amayreh
American Consul General to Jerusalem Michael A. Ratney on Monday, 23 June, addressed the 56th annual convention of the American Federation of Ramallah, Occupied Palestine (AFRP), held for the first time in Ramallah.
Speaking before more than 1500 Palestinian-Americans, Ratney said the U.S. government was still committed to the "peace process," saying that the two-state solution “required building a strong and self-sustaining economy."
He didn't explain how such an economy can be built let alone sustained in the presence of a sinister foreign military occupation and absence of any semblance of Palestinian sovereignty.
The Soaring Profits of the Military – Industrial Complex And the Soaring Costs of Military Casualties
James Petras
Introduction
There are two major beneficiaries of the two major wars launched by the US government: one domestic and one foreign. The three major domestic arms manufacturers, Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOG) and Raytheon (RTN) have delivered record-shattering returns to their investors, CEOs and investment banks during the past decade and a half. The Israeli regime is the overwhelming foreign beneficiary of the war, expanding its territory through its dispossession of Palestinians and positioning itself as the regional hegemon. Israel benefited from the US invasion which destroyed Iraq, a major ally of the Palestinians; the invasion provided cover for massive Israel’s settler expansion in the Occupied Palestinian territories. In the course of its invasion and occupation Washington systematically destroyed Iraq’s armed forces and civil infrastructure, shredding its complex modern society and state. By doing so, the US occupation removed one of Israel’s major regional rivals.
On Eurofascism
by Sergei Glazyev
Current events in Ukraine are guided by the evil spirit of fascism and Nazism, though it seemed to have dissipated long ago, after World War II. Seventy years after the war, the genie has escaped from the bottle once again, posing a threat not merely in the form of the insignia and rhetoric of Hitler’s henchmen, but also through an obsessive Drang nach Osten policy. The bottle has been uncorked, this time, by the Americans. Just as 76 years ago at Munich, when the British and the French gave Hitler their blessing for his eastward march, so in Kiev today, Washington, London and Brussels are inciting Yarosh, Tyahnybok, and other Ukrainian Nazis to war with Russia. One is forced to ask, why do this in the 21st century? And why is Europe, now united in the European Union, taking part in kindling a new war, as if suffering from a total lapse of historical memory?
Answering these questions requires, first of all, an accurate definition of what is happening. This, in turn, must start with identifying the key components of the events, based on facts. The facts are generally known: Yanukovych refused to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, which Ukraine had been under pressure to accept. After that, the United States and its NATO allies physically removed him from power by organizing a violent coup d’état in Kiev and bringing to power a government that was illegitimate, but fully obedient to them. In this article, it will be called “the junta.” The goal of this aggression was to gain acceptance of the Association Agreement, as is evidenced by the fact it was indeed, prematurely, signed by the EU leaders and the junta only a month after the latter had seized power. They reported (the document bearing their signatures has not yet been made public!) that only the political part of the agreement has been signed, the part that obligates Ukraine to follow the foreign and defense policy of the EU and to participate, under EU direction, in settling regional civil and military conflicts. With this step, adoption of the Agreement as a whole has become a mere technicality.
Activists' Quick Opposition to War In Iraq Can Stop the Next War
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
Ending Empire and the War Culture that Supports It are as Important as Confronting Wall Street
Take action: We can stop the next Iraq War. A majority of Americans oppose a military attack. Contact Congress tell them to warn President Obama: a military attack violates the Constitution and is an impeachable offense.
In the last week, there has been a rapid march toward military action in Iraq despite widespread opposition to more war among the US population for a variety of reasons. One concern is that it would require more military spending despite immense and unmet needs for funding in a broad array of areas at home. Unlike any other policy area, there never seems to be a lack of funds for a military attack or even a war. The military-industrial complex has a powerful hold on US lawmakers.
The Complete History of Monsanto, The World’s Most Evil Corporation
Hanzai E.
Of all the mega-corps running amok, Monsanto has consistently outperformed its rivals, earning the crown as “most evil corporation on Earth!” Not content to simply rest upon its throne of death, atop a mountain of rotting corpses, it remains focused on newer, more scientifically innovative ways to harm the planet and its people.
As true champions of evil, they won’t stop until…well, until they’re stopped! But what is Monsanto and how did they get to be so obscenely evil in the first place? I think that’s the best place to start this journey, so grab a few non-GMO snacks or beverages and let’s go for a ride into the deep, murky sewers of their dark past.
Buying Up the Planet: Out-of-control Central Banks on a Corporate Buying Spree
by Ellen Brown
Finance is the new form of warfare – without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means? — Dr. Michael Hudson, Counterpunch
, October 2010
When the US Federal Reserve bought an 80% stake in American International Group (AIG) in September 2008, the unprecedented $85 billion outlay was justified as necessary to bail out the world’s largest insurance company. Today, however, central banks are on a global corporate buying spree not to bail out bankrupt corporations but simply as an investment, to compensate for the loss of bond income due to record-low interest rates. Indeed, central banks have become some of the world’s largest stock investors.
Will ISIS Create al-Sham Caliphate & Liberate Palestine?
by FRANKLIN LAMB
Ein el Helwe Palestinian camp
One need not be prescient to understand the unfolding “Jihadi Spring” is fueling the plans and perhaps destiny of ascendant Islamists in this region with the increasing help of in-country nationalists, including remnants of the Iraqi Baath Party. This, according to more than a dozen ardent supporters of The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), known locally as DAASH whose representatives allowed this observer over the past six months to interview some of its supporters to discuss what they found inaccurate in a piece I wrote about DAASH actions in Raqqa, Syria. In that article I claimed that DAASH was selling Syria’s archeological treasures, just as they are selling Syria’s oil and in some instances, food warehouse contents, to the highest foreign bidder. There is no paucity of the latter.
Iraqi hydrocarbon prize of U.S. invasion in danger
By Nicola Nasser*
Excluding “boots on the ground” and leaving combat missions to local and regional “partners,” President Barak Obama and his administration say the United States keeps “all options on the table” to respond militarily to the terrorists’ threat to “American interests” in Iraq, which are now in “danger.”
Similarly, former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on TV screens and in print has recently urged western governments to “put aside the differences of the past and act now” and to intervene militarily in Iraq “to save the future” because “we do have interests in this.”
Both men refrained from indicating what are exactly the “American” and “western” interests in Iraq that need military intervention to defend, but the major prize of their invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the country’s hydrocarbon assets. There lies their “interests.
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