It's part of who we are. Human beings chronically look to explain failure, and often the finger we point is anywhere but at ourselves. Webster's dictionary defines responsibility as having sufficient moral discrimination to be legally answerable for one's conduct. And, while this defense didn't float with The Great Almighty, it's been pretty effective in the American courtroom and our society in general.
Responsibility is an internal maturity issue.
The sad part is, that the woman who brought the civil suit against the popular fast food chain WON her case, and now she is considerably wealthier and Mcdonald's has warning labels plastered all over the restaurant, informing customers that coffee and hot chocolate are served hot. Lukewarm coffee and cold chocolate are not well-known treats. While life doesn't hang in the balance on water temperature, there are plenty of instances where life has and did teeter on the brink. With Susan Smith, it fell. Last October, Smith confessed to pushing her car, with her two children strapped inside, into a nearby lake.