A version of this article was first published here on Dejusticia’s Global Rights Blog.
All of us have been close to the pain of a loved one at one point or another: a grandmother with cancer at home, a father with multiple sclerosis, a brother with a chronic respiratory disease. They usually get their pain medication every four hours, and if the pain increases, they can call the nurse and ask for more. In the world of palliative care, we often don’t even hope for them to get better; we simply hope our loved ones will die in peace, that their last moments are pain free. But what if pain medication were not accessible in your country? What if the legal or logistical requirements made it impossible to acquire them? What if doctors simply do not prescribe them in your country? Most of us would argue that pain relief should not be a luxury exclusive to developed countries, but the reality in many developing countries is that thousands of people are dying in unnecessary pain.
Lack of access to pain medication violates fundamental rights.Access to medication to alleviate symptoms and pain is an essential element of palliative care. Palliative care seeks to improve the quality of life of patients facing chronic or terminal illnesses, alleviating their pain and other types of physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems. Far from a refined commodity in certain health systems, these pain medications have been recognized as a requirement of human rights. Various documents written by UN Special Rapporteurs against torture and on the right to health have emphasized that the lack of access to pain medication violates fundamental rights to health and the protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
