Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Paraguay

The Good Samaritan: compassion and protection

Drawn from the Bible (Luke 10:25-37), the parable of the Good Samaritan tells of a traveller left for dead who is rescued by a stranger that tends to him and sees to his care. Beyond its religious context, it carries a universal message: the moral duty to help others in danger, through compassion and altruism.

Inspired by this principle, many so-called Good Samaritan laws have been enacted around the world to protect those who assist in good faith during an emergency from legal action. The exact scope of that protection, however, varies from one jurisdiction to another: here is what the law applicable to your region provides.

Statute citation

Governing act Penal Code (Law No. 1160/97), art. 117 "Omisión de auxilio" (failure to render aid): "El que no salvara a otro de la muerte o de una lesión considerable, pudiendo hacerlo sin riesgo personal..." — Anyone who fails to save another from death or considerable injury, when able to do so without personal risk, where: 1) the person omitting was present at the event; or 2) their intervention was requested in a direct and personal manner.
Scope of protection Duty to save another from death or considerable injury, without personal risk, but only where the bystander was present at the event or their intervention was directly and personally requested. Aggravation (up to 2 years) if the person, through prior unlawful conduct, contributed to creating the risk. The State indemnifies the expenses and damages suffered by the rescuer.
Duty to rescue Yes
Penalty for failure to assist Deprivation of liberty of up to one year or a fine; up to two years if the person contributed to the risk through prior unlawful conduct (art. 117).
AED liability protection No
Legal duty to rescue applies

Your protection under the law

Paraguay's Penal Code (Law 1160/97) penalizes in its article 117 anyone who fails to save another from death or considerable injury when able to do so without personal risk. The law goes beyond protecting the helper: it provides that the State indemnify the expenses and damages incurred by the person who renders aid, so that the Paraguayan good Samaritan is not merely shielded but supported.

Duty to rescue

The duty, however, has precise contours: it binds when the bystander was present at the event or when their intervention was directly and personally requested, and it is aggravated — up to two years — if, through prior conduct, they helped create the danger. Within those limits, failure to render aid is an offence; helping ceases to be a favour and becomes a responsibility the Paraguayan takes on toward the person before them.

Why training matters

To be present is to be obliged to respond, and responding well is learned. Nearness counts for nothing if, faced with a cardiac arrest or a severe haemorrhage, we cannot act in the seconds that matter. Training in CPR and first aid gives the Paraguayan the technique to turn presence into genuine aid — compressing, controlling bleeding, sustaining — and, backed by the support the law itself offers, to act without fear. To prepare is to turn obligation into the power to save.