The Problem of Suffering

Euthanasia in Canada 

On Friday, Feb. 6, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down Canada’s laws prohibiting assisted suicide. The circumstances surrounding one’s decision to end one’s life are complex, not just for the people themselves, but for their family and friends as well. Suffering, whether it is physical or psychological, finds us all and is often hard to make sense of. My intention with this article is not to make light of the complexity of these issues, nor to pass moral judgement. I would like to give my perspective on the problem of suffering in the hope that others may consider a more meaningful and coherent approach in which to view the prevalence of suffering in the world.

Suffering, whether it is physical or psychological, finds us all and is often hard to make sense of.

Dying with dignity seems to be predicated on the assumption that nothing good can come from suffering. The argument goes something like this: there is no reason why someone should be expected to endure endless, excruciating physical or psychological pain, especially at the end of their life. Therefore, a person has a right to die in order to maintain their dignity and avoid needless suffering for them and their family.

I would like to challenge this assumption. On a very basic level this premise is false. There are countless notional and actual scenarios in which something good is resultant from a difficult or painful experience. Exercise is painful, yet we endure the pain in order to reap the health benefits. On a more relevant level, all of us have encountered or will encounter, adversity in life. The outcome of these experiences will be determined largely by the manner in which we choose to handle them. Yet many people endure extremely difficult experiences and become stronger, wiser, and more appreciative of life as a result.

So, it is possible that good can come from suffering. Now, the existence of needless, pointless pain and suffering is cruel. But is all suffering needless and pointless? Superficially, it would seem like most of it is. So what sufficient reason could we have to endure it, rather than avoid it? It is possible that pain and suffering may lead to a good that far outweighs that suffering, and which could only occur as a result of this suffering.

It seems contradictory, but in my experience and many others’, some of the most purposeful and meaningful things I have found in life have come to me as a result of enduring painful experiences. I will give one personal example. This past fall, my grandmother passed away. Over the course of a year, she endured a long, slow decay of her body and mind as she battled terminal brain cancer. Through the painful process of my grandmother’s death, our family experienced great relational, emotional, and spiritual intimacy. The experience was the most difficult for my mother, yet through a profoundly intimate reversal of caregiver roles, she and my grandmother experienced an unexpected rebirth of their relationship that could otherwise never have transpired. My grandmother’s journey was not defined by pain and defeat, but by countless instances of strength and grace that inspired everyone around her, and left my mother with a legacy of a courageous life.

Had my grandmother committed suicide, or planned to die with dignity before her decline, I cannot imagine how her life and our family’s lives would have been impacted, having been deprived of these experiences. This is not to say that everyone will have, or should expect this experience in similar circumstances. However, it demonstrates the profound and perplexing nature of evil and suffering. Unlike happiness and pleasure, I discovered that suffering forced me to question life’s fundamentals: purpose, identity, and the existence of god. In the words of Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, a fictional character from the TV series Hannibal, “Grieving is an individual process with a universal goal: the truest examination of the meaning of life and its end.”

However, our interpretation of life determines how we react to suffering and the meaning it has in our lives. Dr. William Lane Craig argues, “Much of the suffering in life may be utterly pointless with respect to the goal of producing human happiness”. This seems to be a second implicit assumption of dying with dignity. If our purpose in life is to experience as much happiness as possible, then there is no merit in pain and adversity. But I am not so certain happiness is the purpose of life.

This is not to say that everyone will have, or should expect this experience in similar circumstances.

To be clear, I do not deny our moral responsibilities to prevent and bring to justice perpetrators of great evil. Rather, I am discussing unavoidable, personal adversity that is inevitable in life. Such a world view – that happiness is the end goal of life – makes no sense of pain and suffering. Is it rational to adopt a view of life that dismisses one of the most defining aspects of human existence as meaningless?  If we completely deny ourselves a true and honest experience of life by dismissing all personal adversity as pointless and avoiding it at any cost, then I believe we not only fail to recognize life’s meaning, but we also rob ourselves of the incredible beauty that can only come from suffering.