Failure to Render Assistance to the Sick and Injured

according to Soviet criminal law, one of the crimes against human life and health.

According to the 1969 Basic Principles of Health Legislation of the USSR and the Union republics, medical and pharmaceutical workers, whether they are on duty at the time or not, are obligated to render emergency first aid to citizens while traveling, in the street, in other public places, and at home. On-duty medical workers of state or public institutions (enterprises) who do not render assistance to a sick or injured person are criminally liable. In other cases failure to render assistance to the sick and injured is punishable by up to one year of corrective labor without actual imprisonment, a fine of up to 100 rubles, public censure, or other measures of public sanction.

Failure to render assistance to a sick or injured person that results in, or it is known that it could result in, the death of the sick or injured person or any other serious consequences for the patient is punishable by up to two years confinement with deprivation of the right to engage in professional activity for up to three years.