Suffering and Moral Responsibility

This book is about the duty to relieve suffering. Jamie Mayerfeld argues that this obligation is far stronger than most of us acknowledge. He begins this study with a discussion of the meaning of suffering, and its measurement and moral significance. He then argues that the prima facie duty to relieve suffering arises directly from the badness of suffering, and he defends the view that such alleviation is more important than the promotion of happiness. Finally, Mayerfeld addresses the question of how to identify those occasions when such relief is not morally required or is indeed wrong.