Suffering, medical ethics, and the retarded child

Hauerwas explores the nature of suffering as the term is applied to the lives of people with developmental disabilities. He asks the question “whose suffering is it that is relieved by such medical technologies as amniocentesis?” Is it the suffering of the child? Or is it the suffering of the family or even the wider society? Such questions raise major moral issues relating to medicine and the type of society that we hope to bring about. Hauerwas presents a framework within which we can wrestle with these questions and begin to understand the nature and purpose of suffering. © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author Stanley M. Hauerwas Divinity School