Aid when there is “nothing left to offer”: A study of ethics & palliative care during international humanitarian action

Standards of clinical care for crisis settings emphasize that patients who are dying should be treated with respect, accompanied (Institute of Medicine 2009), and provided with pain relief (WMA 2006). Where demands for care dramatically outweigh resources, however, dying patients may be left unattended, or attended by health care providers (HCPs) who do not know what to do for them, or worse, who treat patients as if they were already dead (Orbinsky 2008).

The premise of this study is that following sudden onset disaster, epidemic, or during protracted armed conflict, humanitarian teams often operate in high mortality settings, raising crucial questions about care for the incurable and the dying, their families, and communities. We aim to better understand ethical and practical experiences, challenges, and possibilities related to the integration of palliative care in the response of humanitarian organizations in different crisis situations. humanitarianhealthethics.net/hhe-research-studies/ elrha.org/project/ethics-palliative-care-international-humanitarian-action/