A Truly Compassionate Profession Redux

(I posted this last month inadvertently before I had rounded out the thought. No idea how. I do try hard to provide quality product.) Defenders seek to prevent suffering, as do physicians. Unlike physicians, however, defenders are trying to prevent suffering that someone else is deliberately trying to cause. Causing suffering to our clients is someone's idea of justice. If we were to make our own judgments of our clients' just deserts, we might not try to prevent their suffering. So the defender's intent to prevent suffering is accompanied by a suspension of judgment. We try to prevent suffering despite society's judgment that suffering is just. That is compassion.