The Wire

Palliative care in countries like India does not include basic opioids like morphine even though it is a very cheap drug.  People are more likely to be offered expensive scans, tests and procedures that can impoverish poorer families for generations, and then their loved relative most often dies anyway.

Fears of abuse and theft of pharmacological stocks fuel the fear of using drugs like morphine, but this means great suffering for those who have terminal diseases.

Dr M R Rajagopal is an humanitarian physician who is the subject of the documentary Hippocratic: 18 Experiments in Gently Shaking the World, currently showing in theatres around Australia.