Moral Rationality in Modern Public Rescue: An Ethical Examination of Bystander Assistance in Elderly Fall Incidents

Abstract

Public assistance after an older adult falls is not merely a matter of individual moral choice. It is a composite issue in which ethical motivation, legal responsibility, risk perception, first-aid competence, and social trust intersect. Building on and substantially revising the original manuscript, this paper adopts an interdisciplinary perspective that draws on ethics, social psychology, law, and public health. It examines why bystanders hesitate in fall-related rescue situations and how a modern public assistance framework can be developed without abandoning the traditional moral resource of benevolence. The paper argues that Confucian ideas of compassion and care remain important ethical foundations for helping behavior. Yet in a highly mobile society where responsibility is complex and risk information travels quickly, moral condemnation alone cannot reliably increase rescue willingness. Hesitation arises mainly from four sources: perceived legal uncertainty, limited trust among strangers, insufficient first-aid knowledge, and the amplification of risk through memorable media cases. In response, this paper proposes an ethical model of rational benevolence. Under this model, a rescuer should assist while ensuring personal safety, respecting the recipient’s will, preserving necessary factual records, following basic first-aid principles, and connecting the person to professional emergency services. Rational benevolence does not weaken traditional moral concern; rather, it gives benevolence a sustainable form under modern conditions of risk.