A study involving 725 patients conducted in 13 U.S. hospice programs found that the use of opioids (narcotics, such as morphine) need not hasten the death of patients with advanced illnesses. "Undertreatment of pain is a far more pressing concern than is the risk of hastening death in those with advanced disease," researchers discovered, "and physicians should be encouraged to use opioids effectively to relieve suffering at the end of life." [R.K. Portenoy et al., "Opioids Use and Survival at the End of Life: A Survey of a Hospice Population," Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, pp. 539, 12/6/06]
The research undermines the frequently used claims by right-to-die advocates that euthanasia and assisted suicide should be legalized because those induced death practices are no different than the yield of aggressively treating pain when death is hastened. According to the study's leading author, Dr. Russell K. Portenoy, "Opioid drugs can be used aggressively at the end of life to relieve pain and suffering, and this use should not be constrained by inappropriate fear of serious consequences like earlier death." [Reuters Health, 1/26//07]
[Source: International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Update, Vol. 21, No. 1 (2007), p. 2]
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