Passive Observer

In most states (if not all), you are liable to be sued if you stand by and simply watch as someone slowly dies a painful and torturous death. Ironically, if you help them and hurt them in the process of saving their life, you are also liable to be sued.
I guess you're damned if you do......and you're damned if you don't. The best solution is to look around and find out how many other people are in the vicinity and then run like hell.

So my question today is weather it is wrong or right to stand by and watch a friend slowly die emotionally and spiritually? 


Initially, I was like "Of course it is wrong to stand by and watch", but after careful consideration, I came to the conclusion that you should stand there and watch them suffer.

As a friend, standing by and doing nothing might be the hardest thing you will have to do, but as a friend you MUST.
If that person on the floor fails to come to the realization on their own, that they must choose to stop dying, then they will never recover.
If you, as a friend, have to save them, then they will forever be dependent on you to always save them. They will be crippled for life, and you would have done them a great disservice.

The hardest thing that I have ever done, has been sitting by and watching my best friend die a slow and painful death. I could almost feel the same agony that he felt by watching him go through it.
He described the pain as "a root canal to the heart, without any sedation or medication".

I don't know about you, but a root canal WITH medication brought me to tears, when I had it done.

After a while though, I began to feel less sympathy for him and more pity.
Because at the end of the day, we are all responsible for our situations. We can't control other people's actions, but we can control how we respond to it.

I have tried over and over to convince my friend that he has to snap out of it, but he doesn't listen to me. He chooses to be the fool.

So I will stand by, like a good friend and watch him continue to die slowly. I may not always have a shoulder for him to cry on, but I will always have a mop and a bucket to wipe up the blood.