If there are mechanisms in place to effect a rescue, we like to think that they will work efficiently. At the same time, if one chooses to abdicate the responsibility for one's life or personal safety to others, one must accept the quality of the service provided. We do this every day--with surgeons, with automobile mechanics, with migrant fruitpickers--because the cost to us is deemed too high, to attend those needs personally. Many times we are afforded an opportunity to switch service providers, sometimes we are not. In any case, it is ultimately our own responsibility to carry the burden, or to pass it off to someone else, who may not find our needs as pressing as his own.