Care when there is no cure - Ensuring the right to palliative care in Mexico

Tens of thousands of patients with terminal illnesses in Mexico suffer unnecessarily from severe pain and other symptoms because they cannot access adequate end-of-life care, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 122-page report, “Care When There Is No Cure: Ensuring the Right to Palliative Care in Mexico,” documents the lack of access for many patients to pain relief and other assistance known as palliative care. Although Mexico’s health law explicitly grants people with terminal illness a right to palliative care, the service is offered almost exclusively at large specialist hospitals.

Almost 600,000 people die every year in Mexico. Estimates by the World Health Organization and the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance suggest that more than half of these people require palliative care.

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