IN MEDICAL CARE, WE NEED NOT CHOOSE PAIN

Medical ethicists hope last week's jury decision in favor of a dying
man who claimed he was not given adequate pain medication will improve
the treatment of the seriously ill.

It is a measure of the scope of the problem that the children of the
man, who died of lung cancer three years ago, felt they had to sue. The
jury found his California physician guilty of elder abuse for
undertreatment of pain.

It's difficult if not impossible to comprehend the horror and agony of
the pain faced by those with terminal cancer or AIDS until one has
experienced it or cared for a seriously ill patient. But health-care
surveys show the scope of the problem is staggering. Recent studies
indicate 75 percent of surgery patients and 70 percent of cancer
patients did not receive enough pain relief.

It also is difficult for patients to understand the dilemma sometimes
faced by physicians, who may want to control and relieve pain but also
fear regulators and disciplinary bodies on the lookout for narcotics
abuse.

Both patients and the medical profession must recognize that treatment
of pain is as important as treatment of disease. This is an issue that
the health care profession must take control of through education and
through professional guidelines for pain management.

And lawmakers and regulators must be enlightened enough to recognize
that palliative pain treatment has a place in health care.