title: Ethics, law, and pain management as a patient right.
abstract: Ethical and legal considerations in pain management typically relate to 2 issues. The first refers to pain management as a human right. The second involves the nature of the patient-physician relationship as it relates to pain management. Although pain physicians often like to think of pain management as a human right, it remains difficult to support this position as a point of law or as a matter of ethics. Medical organizations generally do not define pain management as a specific duty of the physician, apart from the provision of competent medical care. To date, neither law nor ethics creates a duty of care outside of the traditional patient-physician relationship. Absent a universal duty, no universal right exists. Pursuing pain management as a fundamental human right, although laudable, may place the power of the government in the middle of the patient-physician relationship. Despite apparent altruistic motives, attempts to define pain management as a basic human right could have unintended consequences, such as nationalization of medicine to ensure provision of pain management for all patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX 79424, USA.
authors.forename: John K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Mark V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Boswell
mesh_terms: D000698:Analgesia / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007880:Legislation, Drug / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D028701:Patient Rights / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends; D012955:Societies, Medical / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards