Michael Starks died after participating in an alcohol-related fraternity pledge ritual at Utah State University on November 21, 2008. At the time of the pledge, on the previous evening, those choreographing or watching the hazing, when realizing that Michael was in mortal danger, called Poison Control and gave false information to personnel out of fear or their own well-being. Subsequently, emergency personnel did not arrive on the scene until after Michael had died.

With several bills addressing the subject of hazing clearing the Utah State legislature in 2010, the structuring, introduction, and passing of a so-called Good Samaritan Law was absolutely critical. This would allow other students present at the hazing to call in with honest and accurate information pertaining to the pledge in danger of losing his or her life. Instead, out of fear of legal prosecution and persecution by legal authorities and perhaps the university itself, those present chose to remain silent (or leaving the scene after ‘feeling uncomfortable’) or, finally, deliberately deceive emergency medical personnel that could have and would have saved Michael’s life.

Those opposing such a Good Samaritan Law do so out of the bankrupt belief that allowing an underage lawbreaker to escape prosecution is worse than the actual loss of human life. One can’t help but wonder if the legislators or attorneys who had spoken up against such a law - when what it actually needed at the time was
full support - would have done so had the child dying from alcohol poisoning on a concrete basement floor been their own son, daughter, or grandchild. How self-righteous and pompous we become when the life at risk is that of a stranger.

That a life should be lost when weighed against the opportunity to prosecute some underage student for the illegal consumption of alcohol is unethical, immoral, and contrary to the established and conventional values of society. The battle may have been won, but the war is lost. Several of the students present when Michael died later told my other sons that they themselves would have called for help – honestly - had they not feared legal ramifications – both legal and academic. Has the ‘I’m OK – you’re not’, ‘me-ism’ sense of self-righteousness taken such hold as to preclude even the most basic sense of common decency and humanity…

SUPPORT, STRENGTHEN, AND FORTIFY GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS. DO IT FOR PETE’S SAKE…OR MICHAEL’S, CARSON’S, MATT’S, GORDIE’S, OR YOUR OWN CHILD’S. LIFE IS PRECIOUS. IRREPLACEABLE. BREAKABLE.

Let your legislators know that you have children, value their lives, and insist on their backing to establish or strengthen Good Samaritan legislation. This is what makes us who we are – noble in spirit. Can we still remember the meaning of such words?