Is it ever permissible to break Shabbos in order to relieve someone (a human or an animal) of suffering? I am talking about excruciating suffering, not merely discomfort, and I am not talking about situations in which human life would be saved at the same time.
I am interested in to what extent Shabbos could be broken in such a situation--for example, minhag, chumras, Rabbinical prohibitions, more?
Please assume no Gentile is available to relieve the suffering.
Answer
it seams that the shulchan aruch harav summaries these laws like this
to relieve a human of suffering if no Gentile is available
if the he is so sick that he fell because of it into laying (due to his sickness he needs to lye down) or he has an ache that is so painful that his whole body became weak (even though he is walking he is considered laying) ... a jew can "break (shabos)" for him Rabbinical prohibitions if with a shinui (doing it unusually) not excluding medicine
if he did not fall laying and it is not causing his whole body to became weak but he has big pain
a jew can do for him Rabbinical prohibitions if with a shinui excluding the prohibition of eating foods that it is recognizable that they are for healing (i.e. medicine) (but it is forbidden to feed him medicine)
if he is only a little sick a jew is not permitted to do anything that is usually forbidden *
concerning to relieve an animal of suffering if no Gentile is available
you are not allowed to help it give birth at all
to take care of a wound you can only toil to help it with pain but for it to have pleasure no
their is no prohibition of medicine (i.e. feeding it foods that it is recognizable that they are for healing) by animals since he is not so nervous about it to do a biblicaly prohibited work
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