In medicine, suffering matters: encountering suffering and helping patients cope with, and navigate through suffering, are key functions of healthcare. In addition, the concept of suffering plays an important role in many high-stake areas of medical ethics including medical aid-in-dying and/or euthanasia, moral distress/burnout, and policies addressing “futility,” or medically-ineffective treatment. Yet for all its gravity and salience, the concept of suffering is underdetermined. In this webinar, I will briefly survey the history of “suffering” in American biomedicine. Then, I will discuss my own research on suffering and offer recommendations on how clinicians and bioethicists can [1] think more clearly about suffering, [2] respond to suffering ethically, and [3] accompany patients well along the road of suffering and illness.
Learning Objectives: After this webinar, attendees will be able to:
- Review theories of suffering in medicine and bioethics.
- Discuss the two kinds of suffering: suffering undergone, and suffering experienced.
- Analyze the ethics of suffering: what can suffering justify?
- Consider humanistic ways of engaging suffering: can suffering be healed?
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