You’re waiting and waiting and
finally the doctor gives you a diagnosis: you have cancer. But what does that
have to with human rights? In Senegal, tens of thousands of patients suffer
from agonizing pain with no relief in sight. According to a report entitled “Abandoned
in Agony: Cancer and the struggle for Pain Treatment in Senegal,” 70,000 people
in Senegal are in need of pain relief care due to chronic, life-threatening
diseases such as cancer. Morphine is an indispensable and cheap drug for
treatment of severe pain. However, surprisingly, Senegal only imports enough
morphine to treat 200 cancer patients. Furthermore, the medication is only
available to people in the nation’s capital, Dakar, making it practically impossible
for patients in more rural areas to gain access.
But if the drug is inexpensive,
why can’t Senegal just buy more? Doctors’ lack of training, poor drug supply,
and unnecessarily strict regulations for importing medication are the main
reasons for Senegal’s lack of pain relief medication for patients in need. According
to Human Rights Watch, denying access to pain relief may result in a violation
of the right to health under international law and the Senegalese Constitution,
as well as a violation of the strict
prohibitions against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
It’s
not as though the medication is being requested for people who don’t deserve it
or even for people with serious short-term pain, like broken bones. Far from
it. These people are suffering from excruciating and long term pain that will
not disappear anytime soon. When one’s life becomes centered around the pain
one feels, life cannot be enjoyed and is hardly even bearable. Although lack of
pain medication is not normally what comes to mind when one thinks of human
rights violations, it is a serious problem that could be remedied with better
rules and regulations regarding medication distribution and would save
thousands of Senegalese from unnecessary suffering.
No comments:
Post a Comment