Hayley the Healing Idealist and the Law of Easy Rescue

Wow…best title ever eh? I’ve been inspired by my new classes. In community nursing, we all had to take a personality test. I’m a healing idealist; to which Andrea responded “uh…yeah…tell me something I don’t know.”

Here’s a taste of what this test “revealed about me”

“Idealist types search for their unique identity, hunger for deep and meaningful relationships, wish for a little romance each day, trust their intuitive feelings implicitly, aspire for profundity.”

Regarding the Healer aspect:
“Healers present a seemingly tranquil, and noticiably pleasant face to the world, and they care deeply, passionately-about a few special persons or a favorite cause, and their fervent aim is to bring peace and integrity to their loved ones and the world.”

Oh, and they also feel passionately about ethics, which is good, because I’m in a bioethics course this semester, and I’m loving it! Today we learned about The Law of Easy Rescue. Here is how it works:

IF:
Person A is in need (need) and
if Person B is nearby (Propinquity) and
if Person B can help Person A (Capacity) and
if Person B doesn’t help A, no one else will (Last Resort) and
if Person A is capable of consenting (Consent) and
if the condition is easy, and helping Person A does not endanger Person B…

Then Person B has a duty to help Person A.

You follow?

Allow me to illustrate more colorfully. I drive up to visit Andrea in Saskatoon tomorrow. As I drive along, I find Andrea shivering in a snowbank wearing nothing but a onesie set of pajamas covered in penguins.

Andrea (Person A, haha), is in need, it is currently -40 and no one else is around. [Need]. I am Person B, and I am close by [Propinquity].I am driving my dad’s toasty warm Grand Am GT, and I can help Andrea by taking her into my car [Capacity]. No one else is around, they’re all inside drinking, so if I don’t help her, no one will [Last Resort]. Andrea is still capable of consenting: “I likes a warm car!”. Opening my car to Andrea does not endanger me, therefore, it is my duty to help Andrea!

Now, most would say “of course you should help Andrea!!”. And don’t worry, I wouldn’t stop and process each of these steps this logically. This is just a framework, a foundation that some dude came up with. But I learned a really cool word: Supererogatory.

Supererogatory means that if an act goes above and beyond what we could ask for, the act is not a duty or an obligation, and it is admirable. Personally, I feel like what Christ did on the Cross was Supererogatory. Let’s go through it, person A being us, Person B being Jesus (I hope this doesn’t mean I’m putting him second).

Person A (us) was in need [very much!]
Jesus is nearby (well, everywhere…though He did have to come down to us)
Jesus can help. (yes, though by incredible self-sacrifice)
If Jesus doesn’t help, no one will (by being perfect, He’s pretty much exclusively qualified)
We are capable of consenting (though only while we’re on earth.)
Easy condition: NO. Jesus was mortally endangered to help us out. He died for us.

His death on the Cross for us was not a duty. He did it for Love. That’s not a factor in this equation. We were not an Easy Rescue.