Suffering is a ubiquitous yet elusive concept in health care. In a field devoted to the pursuit of objective data, suffering is a phenomenon with deep ties to subjective experience, moral values, and cultural norms. Suffering’s tie to subjective experience makes it challenging to discern and respond to the suffering of others. In particular, the question of whether a child with profound neurocognitive disabilities can suffer has generated a robust discourse, rooted in philosophical conceptualizations of personhood as well as the academic and experiential expertise of practiced health-care professionals. The issue remains unresolved because it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to ever truly know an infant’s lived experience. But what if this is not the best question? What if instead of asking “can this infant suffer?” the discourse is broadened to ask “is there suffering here?” This latter question demands attention to patients’ subjective experiences of suffering, but also to the web of relationships that envelop them. Without losing sight of the importance of patients’ experiences, consideration of their relationships may elucidate the presence of suffering when the patients themselves are unable to provide the same clarity. In this essay, care ethics frames an examination of how suffering manifests in the loving and caring relationships that surround an infant with profound neurocognitive disabilities, changing those relationships and affecting the individuals within them. Exploring suffering through these relationships may offer clarity on the presence and content of suffering for infants with profound cognitive disabilities, in turn offering moral guidance for responding to suffering and supporting flourishing in this context.

痛苦是医疗保健中一个普遍存在但又难以捉摸的概念。在一个致力于追求客观数据的领域中，痛苦是一种与主观经验、道德价值观和文化规范密切相关的现象。痛苦与主观经验的联系使得辨别和回应他人的痛苦具有挑战性。特别是，患有严重神经认知障碍的儿童是否会遭受痛苦的问题已经产生了一个强有力的话语，植根于人格的哲学概念化以及实践医疗保健专业人员的学术和经验专业知识。这个问题仍然没有解决，因为要真正了解婴儿的生活经历是困难的，也许是不可能的。但是，如果这不是最好的问题呢？如果不是问“这个婴儿会受苦吗？” 话语被扩大到问“这里有痛苦吗？” 后一个问题需要关注患者的主观痛苦经历，也需要关注包围他们的关系网络。在不忽视患者经历的重要性的情况下，考虑他们的关系可能会在患者自己无法提供同样清晰的信息时阐明痛苦的存在。在这篇文章中，护理伦理对患有严重神经认知障碍的婴儿周围的爱和关怀关系如何表现出来的痛苦进行了研究，改变了这些关系并影响了其中的个体。