Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Switzerland

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 Article 128 of the Swiss Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch / Code pénal, StGB/CP) — "Unterlassung der Nothilfe" / failure to render emergency assistance.
Scope of protection Liable is anyone who fails to render aid to a person whom he has injured or to a person in immediate danger of death, where this could reasonably be expected of him in the circumstances, or who prevents or hinders a third party from rendering such aid. The duty binds every person to the extent of their ability. Criminal law provides no separate civil-immunity shield for the lay rescuer.
Duty to rescue Yes
Penalty for failure to assist Custodial sentence of up to three years or a monetary penalty.
AED liability protection No
Legal duty to rescue applies

Your protection under the law

In Switzerland, Article 128 of the Criminal Code — "failure to render emergency assistance" — punishes anyone who fails to help a person they have injured or who is in immediate danger of death, or who prevents a third party from rendering such aid. The rescuer who intervenes is therefore squarely in line with the law, which expects each person to act to the extent of their ability. Criminal law provides no separate civil-immunity shield for the lay rescuer, but this general duty to help fully recognises and legitimises the act of anyone helping in good faith.

Duty to rescue

In Switzerland, rendering assistance is a duty binding on everyone: Article 128 requires that you help, so far as is reasonable and within your ability, any person in immediate danger of death. Shirking it — or preventing another from acting — carries up to three years' custody or a monetary penalty. The law measures your courage not by heroics but by what the circumstances could reasonably have expected of you; and for that, you still have to know what to do. Training is precisely what turns good will into good action.

Why training matters

In Switzerland, the law asks you to act within your ability — and your ability is something you can learn. In a cardiac arrest, every minute without resuscitation cuts the chance of survival by roughly 10%, and even in a country known for the speed of its emergency services, those first minutes belong to the bystander alone. Training concretely expands what the law can reasonably expect of you: to recognise the emergency, give compressions, defibrillate, and hold on until the professionals arrive. Make yourself someone who can be counted on — the person whose hands will know what to do, the day it matters.