Harm vs. Suffering

Harm and suffering...what is the difference. Well to start here are the definintions of each word thanks to dictionary.com.

Harm- physical injury or mental damage
         -moral injury; evil; wrong

But I like this second definition better for the purposes of our class...

Now what is suffering....

Suffering-to undergo, be subjected to, or endure (pain, distress, injury, loss, or anything unpleasant)

Of course there are many more definitions but for the purpose of this post I feel they are not necessary. Notice both definitions include injury...so what is the difference? Well I believe this is where the second definition of harm comes in...what is morally right and wrong. Obviously suffering is just as morally wrong as harm if not more. As we discussed in class harm and suffering also breaks down into feeling and consciouness.

One can physically feel harm when they are conscious but they can not feel harm when they are unconciousness. Does that make it right to inflict harm when one is unconciousness?...NO! Suffering you also need to be conciousness in order to experience but it doesn't have to be something you physically feel; it could just be mental suffering. One example I can think of is the death of a love one or anything else that will effect you and stick with you for a long period of time. Yes when one is unconsciousness the harm and the suffering go away but unlike harm when you wake up the "side effects" (if you will) of suffering are still there. Okay so sometimes after a surgery or operation that inflicted harm one can still feel that after the fact but eventually that goes away. Suffering doesn't....it is something that will always be with you; even if you are strong enough to put it in the back of your mind. But suffering unlike harm when something triggers that memory you continue to suffer. Harm on the other hand when brought back to mind doesn't bring back the actually physical pain.

In my opinion it is "MORALLY" wrong to hurt and/or make something or someone suffer no matter what their state of consciousness is and whether or not it is something that will stick with them. So here is my question to you....

Question:

Can the notion, "what you don't know won't hurt you" be true??