Good Samaritan Law

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a Samaritan assists a beaten and robbed Jewish man. Samaritans were generally distant from Jews, but the random act of kindness that a Samaritan did for a Jew was an astonishing idea. Therefore, the phrase Good Samaritan originated from this parable and came to have a definition of something along the lines of "people who choose to help others or strangers". These people can get a good rep because of what they do. But, do we need a law to force people to do good deeds for strangers?

Personally, I think we should not create a law that mandates someone to be a Good Samaritan. First, the law would not actually make you a Good Samaritan. This is because the deed is forced, and to be a Good Samaritan you should instead do it because you want to.

Instead, we should make laws or doctrines that encourage people to act kind towards strangers and be a Good Samaritan. Laws that protect those who choose to tend to others (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_samaritan_law) can possibly facilitate the increase of Good Samaritan acts and reduce the Bystander effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect). Encouraging others rather than forcing would be more effective than just forcing others. It may create unnecessary disputes that could otherwise be avoided. A law mandating that others should help others would also be too hard to manage, because we may need policemen or others watching over people and enforcing this law.

Rather than forcing one to do good deeds, we should encourage people to and remind them that by doing a kind act, they gain respect and feel good about themselves. Being a Good Samaritan means performing an act of kindness towards a stranger because you want to, not because you are forced to.