Terminally ill has right to painless death
Terminally ill patients have the right to die a painless death, said senior physicians and cultural personalities at a workshop yesterday.
After losing all hopes of curing a patient, the doctors as well as the society should try to make sure that the patient is spared from unnecessary medication or life support, they said.
The workshop on palliative care was organised by the Centre for Palliative Care (CPC) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in its auditorium in the capital.
“Palliative care is a scientific approach towards making the last hours of a person comfortable,” explained Nizam Uddin Ahmed, professor of palliative care at BSMMU.
About seven million people died from cancer in the world in 2007, he said, almost 70 percent of them had to endure excruciating physical and mental agony for a prolonged period of time.
BSMMU Vice Chancellor Pran Gopal Datta said a 19-bed CPC was launched at BSMMU in 2011.
The World Health Organisation has recently advised its member states to include palliative care in the health policies, he informed.
Cultural personalities Samina Chowdhury, Bappa Majumder and Momtaz Begum were present among others.
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