Good Samaritan law

First Aid & CPR Bahamas

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 No dedicated Good Samaritan statute. The Bahamas is a common-law jurisdiction; liability rests on common-law negligence principles (duty of care, breach, causation). There is no general statutory duty to rescue.
Scope of protection No specific statutory protection for the volunteer rescuer. A rescuer who intervenes is judged against the common-law reasonable-person standard and is liable only for negligent conduct. There is no obligation to intervene.
Duty to rescue No
AED liability protection No
No legal duty to rescue

Your protection under the law

In the Bahamas there is no dedicated Good Samaritan statute that specifically shields the volunteer rescuer. Protection instead flows from common-law principles: someone who helps in good faith and acts reasonably, as a prudent person would in the same circumstances, generally has nothing to fear. Liability would arise only from genuine negligence, not from the simple act of trying to help.

No duty to act, but every reason to

Legally, no one in the Bahamas is required to step in: helping remains a choice, guided by conscience rather than by statute. That said, the law is not harsh toward a person who acts with good sense and good faith to help a stranger in distress. The real question, then, is not whether you are allowed to help, but whether you will know how.

Why training matters

During cardiac arrest, the chance of survival falls by roughly 10% for every minute without CPR: the bystander on the scene becomes the first link in the chain of survival, long before help arrives. In an archipelago like the Bahamas, where the distances between islands can delay an ambulance, that first response matters even more. And where the law offers no detailed protective framework, it is competence that reassures and makes the difference. To get trained is to turn helplessness into steady hands, and an emergency into a life saved.