In view
of this fact, Thorpe's reference to indictments for killing a
patient by want of care, and the later distinction between
neglect before and after the task is commenced, are most
pregnant. The former becomes still more suggestive when it is
remembered that this is the first argument or analogy to be found
upon the subject.
The meaning of that analogy is plain. Although a man has a
perfect right to stand by and see his neighbor's property
destroyed, or, for the matter of that, to watch his neighbor
perish for want of his help, yet if he once intermeddles he has
no longer the same freedom. He cannot withdraw at will. To give a
more specific example, if a surgeon from benevolence cuts the
umbilical cord of a newly-born child, he cannot stop there and
watch the patient bleed to death. It would be murder wilfully to
allow death to come to pass in that way, as much as if the
intention had been entertained at the time of cutting the cord.
It would not matter whether the wickedness began with the act, or
with the subsequent omission.
The same reasoning applies to civil liability. A carpenter need
not go to work upon another man's house at all, but if he accepts
the other's confidence and intermeddles, he cannot stop at will
and leave the roof open to the weather.
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