Specific arguments for such a duty to rescue include, but are not limited to:
The Golden Rule: treat others as you would wish to be treated. This assumes that all persons would wish to be rescued if they were in distress, and so they should in turn rescue those in distress to the best of their abilities. What counts as distress requiring rescue may, of course, differ from person to person, but being trapped or at risk of drowning are emergent situations which this position assumes all humans would wish to be rescued from.
Utilitarian ethics: utilitarianism posits that those actions are right which best maximize happiness and reduce suffering ("maximize the good").[22] Utilitarian reasoning generally supports acts of rescue which contribute to overall happiness and reduced suffering. Rule utilitarianism would look not just at whether individual acts of rescue maximize the good, but whether certain types of acts do so. It then becomes our duty to perform those types of actions. Generally, having strangers rescue those in distress maximizes good so long as the rescue attempt does not make things worse, so we have a duty to rescue to the best of our ability as long as doing so will not make things worse.
Care Ethics: the ethics of care advise that the essence of morality and right behavior is tending to human relationships.
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