Re: Is it possible to not feel pain?

It would not be possible to be born without the ability to feel pain and 
be normal otherwise. This is because pain is a warning sign that something 
is wrong. It tells us when we have been sitting in the same position to 
long and need to move to restore blood flow, when we have been overdoing 
to long and need to give our muscles a break and when we have been injured 
and either need to fix the wound. 

There is a condition, called familial dysautonomia, in which the patients 
do not feel pain. (Patients with this have digestive and other problems as 
well). These kids run into several problems because of the lack of pain 
fibers, including: The covering of the eye becomes dry and then ulcerated 
(eroded) because there are no signals that tell the eyelids to blink and 
bring tears to the front of the eye; the teeth cut the tongue when babies 
start getting teeth; joints wear out because there are no signals to tell 
the child when to take it easy on the joints; and traumatic injuries are 
common.

As you can see, life without pain would not be easy or desirable because 
pain is a protective mechanism that warns when something needs to be done 
to protect us.

(You also asked if it is possible to not feel pain, but otherwise have a 
normal nervous system. All illnesses that I found in which there were 
severe problems feeling pain, there were also problems with the autonomic 
nervous system, such as problems related to sweating or the digestive 
tract. So, it seems that severe problems with pain sensation also involve 
problems with other parts of the nervous system.)