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In recent decades, the world has seen a surge of chronic illnesses—cancer, diabetes, heart disease—that frequently go hand-in-hand with distressing symptoms. Left untreated, these symptoms—such as pain, difficulty breathing, nausea, fatigue—can cause severe suffering. Yet, as a groundbreaking new report in The Lancet finds, the need for palliative care and pain relief has been largely ignored as healthcare systems and medicine have focused on extending life but not to the same extent on dignity and quality of life. Human Rights Watch advocates for universal access to palliative care so no one has to suffer needlessly from treatable pain.