Pain and the ethics of pain management

Abstract

After clarifying the concepts of "pain", "suffering", "pain of body",\nand "pain of soul", the author presents a humanistic ethic of pain management\nbased on the premise that the patient has a strong "prima facie" right to\nfreedom from unnecessary pain. This premise imposes two moral obligations\nupon medical professionals: (1) the duty not to inflict unnecessary pain and\nsuffering upon the patient, and (2) the duty to do whatever is possible to\nalleviate pain and suffering. Both the questions of informed consent to\ntreatment of pain and the right to refuse pain relief are addressed. (KIE\nabstract)