Unbearable pain. India's obligation to ensure palliative care.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people in India develop severe, chronic pain due to cancer, HIV/ AIDS, and a variety of other health conditions. Although pain treatment medications - and broader palliative care services - are effective, safe, and relatively inexpensive, only a small fraction of those suffering severe pain has access to them. India's government has done little to ensure its availability to those in need. It has failed to incorporate palliative care into anti-cancer and HIV policies in a meaningful way; to ensure that healthcare workers receive adequate instruction in palliative care; and many states maintain excessively strict narcotics regulations that directly impede morphine available at hospitals and pharmacies. The government's failure to take reasonable steps to improve palliative care and pain treatment availability violates the right to health. In some cases, its failure to ensure pain treatment is available to those in need violates the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.