PALLIATIVE CANCER ETHICS AND CHALLENGES
Provided this backdrop of palliative care in India, it is important to address the difficulty of imitating Western models of palliative care. In general, palliative cancer care has become a requisite for physicians while formulating a tailored plan of patient care. These developments prompt a review of some of the central ethical issues particular to palliative care. These issues such as relief of pain and suffering, autonomy and consent, and multi-specialist care, are important points of consideration for all physicians caring for patients regardless of the cause of their suffering and whether or not these physicians are specialists in palliative medicine or not. At the same time, the Indian palliative care environment presents numerous challenges to these Western ethical principles of palliative care.
The first issue addresses the relief of pain and suffering. The availability, accessibility, and effectiveness of modern methods of pain control make it a moral mandate for every physician to be knowledgeable in the use of
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Moreover, multi-professional approaches to palliative care reduce the overall cost of care by reducing the amount of time patients spend in acute hospital settings.
However, the primary challenge to multi-specialist treatment approaches in India is the popularity of outpatient homecare programs and services. In one study of 33 palliative care clinics across Kerala, outpatient treatment with a supportive homecare service was adopted as the main mode of palliative care.The homecare team primarily consists of trained nurses, family members, and even social workers, who travel in autorickshaws to visit terminally ill cancer patients and provide emotional support and advice for their symptom