Failure to Give Assistance to Persons in Mortal Danger

under Soviet criminal law, a crime involving failure to give assistance which is necessary and clearly cannot be postponed to a person in danger of death. Criminal liability for failure to render such assistance ensues when the conditions stipulated by law are present. The rendering of assistance must not create a serious danger to the person who is assisting or to other persons. Liability has also been established for failure to inform the appropriate institution or appropriate persons of the need to give assistance.

Punishment for failure to give assistance to persons in mortal danger may take the form of corrective labor (for a period not exceeding six months), public censure, or measures of social pressure. More severe punishment (deprivation of freedom for up to two years and corrective labor for up to one year) has been established for leaving unassisted a person who is unable to take steps to save himself because of youth, old age, or illness if the guilty person was able to help the victim and was under an obligation to take care of the victim (for example, a teacher in relation to students during an excursion) or if the guilty person himself placed the victim in mortal danger (Criminal Code of the RSFSR, art. 127, and the corresponding articles in the criminal codes of the other Union republics).