AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2000
Euthanasia not the only pain relief: doctors
Two prominent palliative care specialists have said support for voluntary euthanasia
has been partly caused by ignorance of proper pain treatment of terminally ill patients.
Dr NATHAN CHERNY, director of the Palliative Medicine Unit in a Jerusalem hospital,
says that if the quality of patients' life is improved they will not want to die.
Dr CHERNY says that over the past 60 years doctors had been too enamoured with their
ability to prolong life without taking the quality of that life into account.
He says the focus became very much a focus on the disease and to some degree the patient
was forgotten.
Both Dr CHERNY and Dr PAUL GLARE, head of Palliative Care at Sydney's Royal Prince
Alfred Hospital, agree there is a culture in Australia of she'll be right mate, meaning
patients are often denied necessary pain treatment.
Dr GLARE says people also do not want to be considered whingers.
He estimates up to half of patients who need specialist pain management are not receiving
it due to these factors.
AAP RTV jh/sb/arb/hn
KEYWORD: PAIN (SYDNEY)
2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.
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