Lisa asked:

Is there such a thing as a standard of acceptable treatment, one human to another?

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Treat others as you would have them treat you is a good principle, but it needs to be fleshed out with
further standards of what is correct and proper. One person may want to be treated with great
delicacy, another may be a masochist.

Given Kant's theory that we should treat others with respect as rational beings, we can argue that the
masochist cannot use the "treat others' principle". It is not rational to treat others cruelly and if a being
is rational he won't want to be treated so. You cannot be rational and demand more respect than you
are entitled to. You should not desire to be treated with great delicacy because this will be on account
of sensitivity which is a feeling. The rational person should be in control of their feelings and should
not act upon emotion and impulse, nor should he desire to be treated with great delicacy because this
will be on account of sensitivity which is a feeling.

Whilst we don't act rationally much of the time, and a lot of treatment of others is based on sympathy,
which is a feeling, the rational standard can be seen as an ideal to aim for.

You might want to look at Cicero's On LawBook 1 for a theory of natural law which bases morality in
similarities between persons and their values.

Rachel Browne