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Paliative Care: A Global Duty
Cehryl Cox MACPHERSON*
* Assoc.Prof., St George's University School of Medicine, Grenada, WEST INDIES
For patients nearing the end of life, pain and suffering decreases their well being and diminishes their interactions with loved ones. Palliative medicine is invaluable to a patients recovery and/or to ensur their peaceful death. In the developed world, palliative care can be cost effective. In less developed nations, it can be made affordable and sustainable. Ethical principles require us to believe what patients tell us about their pain, and to alleviate it when possible. This paper discusses the global value of palliative medicine, and examines factors that hinder its provision. Much suffering in both developed and developing countries results from trauma, accidents, illness, and the process of dying. In many settings, the duties to heal, comfort, and alleviate suffering require professionals to challenge and advocate change in the standard end-of-life care practices accepted within the system in which they work.Keywords: Pain management, End-of-life, Palliative care, Hospice, Professional dutyTurkiye Klinikleri J Med Ethics 2002, 10:11-15
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