World Health Organization Issues First-Ever Guide to End-of-Life Care

This week, the World Health Organization released a document aimed at national health ministers. The guide contains formulas for calculating how many people in a country are in need of such care, and outlines typical obstacles to providing it: national laws that make it hard for pharmacists to stock powerful painkillers, lack of training for doctors and nurses, and fears of addiction on the part of patients. It also cites countries that offer good end-of-life care despite national poverty, notably in Uganda and in the state of Kerala in India.