What is an appropriate reward for saving a life?

A thank-you should suffice.

exactly, the deed should be reward enough, anything else is an added bonus

Yeah... there's something about the paltriness of the gift card that makes it worse than giving nothing. Like, it's either "you can't put a price on it, but thank you so much" (heartfelt, tears, hugs, offers of help in the future, whatever), or "I can put a price on it, and that price is $25."

I would want the kid to name his first child after me.


Seriously, letting the kid know you will always have a place in your heart for them, if you every need a friend, so forth, so on...

I don't know, that's a toughie... did you say he was nine yrs old? Kids that age don't really need money, so maybe I'd have bought him something he always wanted and sent a really big thank you with it - ask his parents what would be treasured...

He's 11. And he said he bought legos with it. The kid is probably thrilled. But it does seem to diminish the good deed with a price tag. I'd guess like sozobe was saying, they thanked him with words, (probably not hugs because an 11 year old boy would hate that) and handed the gift card. It could be a case, we can't thank you enough and words and money cannot repay you, but we wanted to give you at least a small token. I agree a gift would have been better - in thought - but I would guess an 11 year old boy would prefer the gift card.

Ancient Chinese Proverb: If you save a person's life you are responsible for that person forever.

Chinese Proverbs are not meant to be taken literally. They have been translated from Ancient Chinese to English. Translations like these are never exact.

For instance:

Ròu bāo zi dă gŏu Ròu bāo means meat+bun dă gŏu means hit+dog

The literal tranlation means… To hit a dog with a meat-bun.

The Chinese Interpretation is…. Punishment with a reward never works. If you go out of your way to help someone you will have a friend for life.

When you are credited with saving a life, it means that the person would have died if you chose not to save it. Having died, that person could not go on and do good and/or bad things in the future. Your choice to save the life allowed more actions to be performed by that person.

The proverb says that the life saver is "responsible" for the actions of the person they saved. This is not true. The saved person still has free will, and is responsible for their own actions. It is logical to say that, "if you had not saved this person, this person would not have gone on to hurt someone else", but that is not the same as "responsibility".

Some do believe that the life saver is responsible for the future actions of the one they saved. I think this belief was common in rural China in the distant past. Small villages with limited resources could not care for severely injured people. Instead of dedicating a large percentage of resources toward what was probably a lost cause, a community would allow them to die. Family or friends would object, but would have to use only their own portion of the communities resources to aid the injured person. The small percentage that survived probably did not recover 100%, and became a burden on the family and friends. The community would continue to refuse to help because the family and friends took responsibility.

It is not difficult to see how this could translate into responsibility for the saved person's actions. If the community had condemned the person, but family and friends nursed them back to health, and the saved person went on to injure the community through violence, the friends and family would be blamed by the community.

I'm pretty sure that the kid whose life was saved now has to be the servant of the first kid for several years.

Cycloptichorn

Every time he plays with those Legos he will be reminded of what he did to get them and how proud everyone was of him. He'll also get the opportunity to tell friends about what he did when they see the Legos. It will be an inspirational moment that gets spread far beyond his family circle.

You can't put a price on that either.

He'll probably treasure those Legos long into adulthood.

I would have spoken to the parents of the boy and see what he really needed, if there was any need.

If the family was not well off, perhaps something could have been arranged.

Great point. I figured the young boy wasn't upset - it seems more of what hear discussed around - what the kids life is only worth $25/gift card doesn't show any thought/etc.

I figure if the kids are happy with then fine.

A thank u shoud suffice,
if merely waving "goodbye" to the choking victim is OK too.





David

I have never known that to happen.
The closest that I can approach to gratitude for rescue
is maybe 10 or 12 years ago, when a boy of give-or-take around 10
rescued a $1O Gold piece worth some $1OOOs of dollars.
He refused to accept more than $1OO reward.
I gave him a $1OO bill.
I felt guilty for not paying him better,
but it was out of my hands.





David

This coming from a guy who dreams of taking a life. I've saved a couple of lives here and there, thanks was all I needed. Didn't get it everytime, to be expected, I guess, as they were unconcious. C'est la vie.
I think it's nice the family gave the young fellow a gift, it may be small, maybe that's all they could afford. However, I'm sure he didn't expect a thing.

25$ is ample reward, noone should spekulate in saving people just for the sake of the reward.

Where do u get that, Ceili ?
When I was a child, I did daydream
of killing Karl Marx, before he caused any trouble,
but except for him, WHO do u have in mind ??

I detested and passionately abhorred the Kennedys ineffably,
but I never thought of killing them.




With thanks and a quarter, u can make a fone call;
(i.e., thanks have no value).



It was SO small as to constitute an insult.


Did he EARN anything?

Was what he did WORTH anything ?????

He shoud have thrown it BACK at them.
Thay did not even have the decency to give him the cash.

My point exactly, most normal people don`t dream of killing another human. You seem to have a lot of hate in you.
Gratitude is a beautiful thing, but I can see how you would find it worthless.
He`s nine, it wasn`t a job and I doubt he found the gesture insulting. This experience will probably make him a better human being.
He saved a life. Again, I can see why you would consider that worthless.

U mean killing Karl Marx ??
By killing him, tens of millions of communist murders
and hundreds of millions of people cast into
communist slavery woud have been avoided.

The Second and the Third World Wars woud have been avoided.





Well, yeah, I used to hate the communists, but thay lost and we won.
Enuf is enuf, as of when we won the 3rd World War on Christmas Eve of 1991.
I can laff at them now, the same as the nazis;
not much difference between them.






It is very brief n transient,
according to my observation.
For instance,
a dog saved a family 's life from fire.
Thay later gave him to a dog pound to be killed,
unless he was lucky enuf to find a new home.




I do not discriminate based on age.
I guess u do.
I don 't respect him less for being young.
I guess u do.




Better for the ingrate whom he saved, yeah.


For all the good it did him.





Good.