Acknowledgments

Research for this report was conducted by Diederik Lohman and Rebecca Schleifer, respectively senior researcher and advocacy director with the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Diederik Lohman wrote the report. It was reviewed by Rebecca Schleifer; Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch; Meenakshi Ganguly, senior researcher in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch; Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch; and Ian Gorvin, senior program officer at Human Rights Watch. Clara Presler and Mignon Lamia, associates with the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, provided invaluable assistance, as did Laura Thomas and Nadeah Vali, respectively Kaufman and Klatsky fellows with the Health and Human Rights Division. Production assistance was provided by Mignon Lamia, Grace Choi, Anna Lopriore, Veronica Matushaj, and Fitzroy Hepkins.

We are deeply grateful to the many palliative care patients in India who, despite being gravely ill, agreed to be interviewed for this report. Without them and their relatives, this manuscript would not have been possible. We are committed to using this report to try to make sure that others who develop life-threatening illness—and pain and other symptoms associated with it—will not have to endure the suffering many of these patients faced.

We are also greatly indebted to the many palliative care advocates, doctors, nurses, social workers and volunteers in India and elsewhere who helped conduct our research, understand our findings, and write this report. Their commitment to serving people at the most vulnerable time of their lives is both humbling and inspiring.