Rodney Leon Taylor - They shall not hurt: human suffering and human caring

Copyright 1989 by Colorado Associated University Press

Boulder, CO 80309

First published 1989

Printed in the United States of America

All Rights Reserved

First Edition

Colorado Associated University Press is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Southern Colorado, and Western State College.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.481984

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

They shall not hurt.

Includes bibliographies.

1. Suffering Religious aspects. 2. Suffering. 3. Caring. 4. Medical ethics. I. Taylor, Rodney Leon, 1944- . II. Watson, Jean, 1940

BL65.S85T48 1989 128'.4 89-904

ISBN 0-87081-201-7

ISBN 0-87081-203-3 (pbk.)

"Compassion: A Critique of Moral Rationalism," by William J. Prior, is reprinted by permission of Philosophy Theology: Marquette University Quarterly.

"Tulips" Copyright 1962 by Ted Hughes. From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF SYLVIA PLATH by Sylvia Plath. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.

Rodney L. Taylor, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Religious Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder

Jean Watson, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., Professor and Dean, School of Nursing, Director, Center for Human Caring, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver

Frederick R. Abrams, M.D., Director, The Center for Applied Biomedical Ethics, Rose Medical Center, Denver

Carole Anderson, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., Dean, School of Nursing, Ohio State University

David Little, Ph.D., Professor of Comparative Ethics, University of Virginia, Jennings Randolph Distinguished Fellow, United States Institute of Peace, Washington D.C.

Nel Noddings, Ph.D., Professor of Ethics, School of Education, Standford University

William Prior, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Santa Clara

We begin with the all too common truism that humankind suffers. Suffering, psychological or physical, is universal in scope. It often seems that the level of suffering is what, tragically, determines the quality of human existence. There is nothing new in this observation. Eastern and Western cultures alike have frequently expressed the ubiquity of suffering and have sought various means to articulate the state of suffering, to explicate its causes, and to remedy its destructive effects. The benefits of modern technological society have not eradicated human suffering; in certain ways they seem only to have exacerbated it. To invent a tool is not necessarily to solve a problem. Human suffering is a deep and complex problem intimately and intricately related to the very nature of human existence.