[MD] The End of Faith Ethics

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
I think it suggests that it would be wrong to completely eliminate suffering.

[Arlo]
Suffering is always more acceptable when it is happening to someone else.

I've always had a problem with the imprecision of Pirsig's words you 
quoted. I certainly agree that in order to know love we must know 
loss, in order to feel joy we must also feel sadness. But a blanket 
statement about "suffering" being necessary for species to evolve 
leaves me wondering about the role of medicine and treating, or 
abolishing, diseases. Should a cancer patient not be given drugs or 
treatment to stop his/her suffering? Should we not seek to improve 
the ergonomics of our chairs so as to eliminate the suffering of 
sitting for long periods of time at work? So I just think we need to 
be a little more precise about what forms of suffering we don't want 
to eliminate or ease, or what forms (e.g. leprosy) we may want to eliminate.