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=Eradication of suffering=

The eradication or abolition of suffering is the concept of a permanent absence of suffering and pain in all living things as a result of gene editing.

Biology and medicine
The discovery of modern anesthesia in the 19th century was an early breakthrough in the elimination of pain during surgery, but acceptance was not universal. Some medical practitioners at the time believed that anesthesia was an artificial and harmful intervention in the body's natural response to injury. Opposition to anesthesia has since dissipated, however the prospect of eradicating pain raises similar concerns about interfering with life's natural functions.

People who are naturally incapable of feeling pain or unpleasant sensations due to rare conditions like pain asymbolia or congenital insensitivity to pain have been studied to discover the biological and genetic reasons for their pain-free lives.

In 1990, Medical Hypotheses published an article by L. S. Mancini on the "genetic engineering of a world without pain": "A hypothesis is presented to the effect that everything adaptive which is achievable with a mind capable of experiencing varying degrees of both pleasure and pain (the human condition as we know it) could be achieved with a mind capable of experiencing only varying degrees of pleasure."

The development of gene editing techniques like CRISPR has raised the prospect of editing "pain genes" for temporary or permanent pain relief: "...by mining genetic oddities, scientists can identify the causes of certain unusual people’s physical superpowers and use gene editing to grant them to others."

Ethics and philosophy
Ethicists and philosophers in the schools of hedonism and utilitarianism, especially negative utilitarianism, have debated the merits of eradicating suffering.

David Pearce's The Hedonistic Imperative argues that the abolition of suffering is both technically feasible and an issue of moral urgency:"It is predicted that the world's last unpleasant experience will be a precisely dateable event."

Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute, advises a more cautious approach due to pain's function in protecting individuals from harm. However, Bostrom supports the core idea of using biotechnology to get rid of "a huge amount of unnecessary and undeserved suffering."