Extraordinary story, with pictures, in today’s newspaper of what happens when a culture of fear of getting sued exists. Apparently, a little girl in China was hit by a van that drove away leaving her lying injured in the street. Nothing too surprising there these days, it sadly happens all too often. The shocker here, is the fact that no fewer than 18 different people, some walking, some cycling, saw and then ignored the bleeding child to the extent that she was then run over and injured further by a lorry.

Is it possible that fear of being sued for helping somebody and making some sort of mistake whilst doing so, frightened off every one of these 18 people? Or is it a sign of a far more worrying character trait in this group of people, or maybe that region of China, that means they value another human being’s life so little? especially the life of a female child.