The Suffering of Pain
Pain Can be thought of in two main general ways, in a physical sense and an emotional sense. Here I’d like to focus mainly on the morality of physical pain how we as people view it across the board.
When I say across the board I mean as in everything that can experience pain. But to start with that, then we must know what can experience pain. And to do that we need to decide on what pain is and how to recognize it. Pain at a base level is the nervous system sending signals to let your brain know that something is wrong. For example, if you burn your hand or arm, it hurts and is sensitive to the touch so then you are constantly reminded to protect it to prevent further damage that has the possibility to do permanent damage reducing your functionality and survivability. So in this sense, pain is simply a tool that bodies use to keep well and in tact. Now, many different animals have these sensors which suggest they can feel pain the same way we do. With these thoughts in mind let's discuss popular views of pain in our society. First think about the death penalty. There are very particular ways to go about legally taking a person's life. This is because it is considered inhumane to kill them in ways that inflict high amounts of pain or long lasting pain. But if pain is simply a tool for the brain to tell you something wrong what does it matter how much or what kind is involved. Why is there morality involved. And why is there morality in that but less so when involved with nonhuman. For example if you see a spider nobody will bat an eye if you kill it in any shape or fashion, but imagine, and I realize this a stretch, a baby walk across your pass and this baby just happened to be irrelevant to your life so you stepped on it and moved on. Why do we differentiate between ways that are ok to kill when both feel pain. Let's talk situational. What if something or someone is enduring continuous pain, is it ok to put them out of their misery. I was in my chemistry class watching a wasp flying around for about 20 minutes and(mostly because my fear of wasps and a little adhd) when it finally landed, it chose to land on the top of the periodic table poster on the wall next to me. 
It was struggling to hang on and had clearly exhausted itself and was not going to make it. What is the right thing to do here? Should I just leave it as if I never saw and let whatever happens happen? I could put it out of its pain as it's not going to survive anyways why should it suffer? Can wasps suffer? If it were a dog struggling like this we’d take it to the vet and it be ok to kill the dog but if it were a human we’d try to keep it alive. Different places have different policies on pulling the plug but if the argument for taking a life is simply to stop a tool in our brain from working, is that simple minded, or simply the right thing to do?
When I say across the board I mean as in everything that can experience pain. But to start with that, then we must know what can experience pain. And to do that we need to decide on what pain is and how to recognize it. Pain at a base level is the nervous system sending signals to let your brain know that something is wrong. For example, if you burn your hand or arm, it hurts and is sensitive to the touch so then you are constantly reminded to protect it to prevent further damage that has the possibility to do permanent damage reducing your functionality and survivability. So in this sense, pain is simply a tool that bodies use to keep well and in tact. Now, many different animals have these sensors which suggest they can feel pain the same way we do. With these thoughts in mind let's discuss popular views of pain in our society. First think about the death penalty. There are very particular ways to go about legally taking a person's life. This is because it is considered inhumane to kill them in ways that inflict high amounts of pain or long lasting pain. But if pain is simply a tool for the brain to tell you something wrong what does it matter how much or what kind is involved. Why is there morality involved. And why is there morality in that but less so when involved with nonhuman. For example if you see a spider nobody will bat an eye if you kill it in any shape or fashion, but imagine, and I realize this a stretch, a baby walk across your pass and this baby just happened to be irrelevant to your life so you stepped on it and moved on. Why do we differentiate between ways that are ok to kill when both feel pain. Let's talk situational. What if something or someone is enduring continuous pain, is it ok to put them out of their misery. I was in my chemistry class watching a wasp flying around for about 20 minutes and(mostly because my fear of wasps and a little adhd) when it finally landed, it chose to land on the top of the periodic table poster on the wall next to me.
For discussion I'd like to hear responses to any of the questions in my post, I am very curious to how people think and feel on this subject.
I think it's best to assume that other creatures, human or not, have a capacity to feel pain and to suffer, and to do all we can to alleviate it... or at least to avoid inflicting it.
ReplyDeleteSaw a really interesting article on the ways in which the brain can to some extent re-program itself to decrease the sensation of pain: If ‘Pain Is an Opinion,’ There Are Ways to Change Your Mind - All pain is real, but it’s also true that it’s “made by the brain” and that we can exert some control over it...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/upshot/pain-and-the-mind.html?searchResultPosition=1