Palliative Care and legislation around dying

Abstract

Around the world forty million people a year need palliative care yet more than four in five of these have no access to basic analgesia with morphine. 6% of those dying with no pain relief are children. Those left behind carry with them the memory of the death and it can colour their future lives, making good palliative care an urgent public health issue around the world. Everyone providing healthcare needs core training in palliative care, including the fundamentals of pain and symptom relief. Governments must urgently address barriers to morphine availability and educators of health care professionals must eliminate myths and phobias, and teach good end of life care.