PALLIATIVE CARE—the comprehensive, coordinated, and concentrated
relief of both pain and suffering in terminally ill or incurably ill patients—has
always been a moral responsibility of physicians, regardless of specialty.1-3 For several reasons
this moral obligation has today become more important than ever: physicians
still provide inadequate pain relief; public opinion is becoming more tolerant
of assisted suicide when patients are perceived to be suffering intolerably;
while denying a constitutional right to assistance in suicide, the Supreme
Court has voiced unequivocal support for adequate pain relief; and palliative
medicine has become an area of expertise in its own right.4-6