If It was you, you'd want a stranger to defend you.
But "wanting" someone to do something doesn't necessarily mean that the other person is morally obligated to conform to that wish. If I don't want my girlfriend to dump me for another guy, that doesn't mean she has a moral obligation to avoid doing so. She can say: "You know what? Tough. I have a right to be with who I want, as long as they're willing to be with me. You'll just have to deal with it." And she'd be absolutely right.
If someone says: "I don't think I'm morally obligated to risk my life for a stranger," it's hard to see how that's clearly wrong, even if one disagrees with it. It's certainly not like, say, a restaurant owner saying: "I don't think I'm morally obligated to serve African Americans--I can only serve whites if I want." That's obviously false, because African Americans have a clear moral right to be treated equally. Therefore, the owner is obligated to either serve both races or neither. There is nothing comparable which shows that someone is obligated to defend a stranger. Yes, the stranger's life is important, but so is one's own, and whether someone must value the stranger's as much as their own is very much a subjective call.
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