Patients Deserve Pain-Free Dignity I practiced medicine for more than 40 years and oncology for more than 30. I can remember patients literally screaming from pain all the way to death. Based on my experience, effective pain management has been the most important achievement of medical care in the last 30 years. Dr. Kathy Foley, who spearheaded this effort, is a Catholic neurologist who works at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has devoted her professional life, supported and inspired by her faith, to bringing back a human dimension (the patient perspective) to an increasingly technological type of medicine. [continues 152 words]
A common theme emerged from three articles in the April 9 Perspective section. The editorial on boot camps (State-sanctioned abuse), Cynthia Tucker's discussion of immigration policies (Immigration problems benefit too many people), and Robyn Blumner's revelation of the lies surrounding the detention of Guantanamo inmates (Lies lurk behind U.S. terror policy) highlight how meanness is prized by an electorate convinced that punishment is the best way to prevent crime and social unrest. As the articles demonstrate very eloquently, the need to appear and act mean hinders the search for sensible solutions to the serious problems of our society by our elected officials. How many more youngsters need to be harmed by authorities before more money is devoted to education and to prevention of family violence? How many billions of dollars will be wasted on impossible border enforcement and in vain prosecution of hardworking immigrants, before we realize that our economy would collapse without their labor? How many lives will be lost or scarred by a war that keeps draining our economy before we look for a political solution to the world's diversity? And how much money will be wasted trying to satisfy the public thirst for lynching through capital punishment before realizing that life without parole is a more economical and prudent way to manage dangerous criminals? [continues 110 words]
