Eliminate the pain or eliminate the patient? Proponents of euthanasia argue that "mercy killing" is necessary because patients, particularly those with terminal illnesses, experience uncontrollable pain (1 ). They argue that the only way to relieve the pain is to eliminate the patient. But is there a better way? This essay proves that there is a better way and this medical opinion is supported by the best medical opinion available. The best response to patients in pain is not to kill them, but to ensure that the medicine and technology currently available to control pain is used more widely and comprehensively. According to a 1992 manual produced by the Washington Medical Association, Pain Management and Care of the Terminal Patient, "adequate interventions exist to control pain in 90-99% of patients".[2] The problem is that uninformed medical personnel using outdated tools or inadequate methods often fail in practice to provide patients with the pain relief that today's advanced techniques make possible. Dr. Kathleen Foley, chief of pain services at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, explained in the July 1991 Journal of Pain and Symptom Management how adequate pain management mitigated patients' desire for assisted suicide : We often see patients referred to our Pain Clinic requesting physician-assisted suicide due to uncontrolled pain. We typically see such ideations and requests dissolve with adequate control of pain and other symptoms, using combinations of pharmacological, neurosurgical, anesthetic, or psychological approaches. and the mental pain suffered by terminally ill patients can exceed… half of the article… National Cancer Institute, “Questions and Answers on Pain Control,” (1992), pp. 43-51.9. Matthew Conolly, MD, letter to the author, August 2, 1993.10. Louis Saeger, “Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) in the management of cancer pain,” Supra Note 1, pp. 149-53.11. Ibid.12. Chuck Michelini, “Patients Have Control of Their Pain Medication,” Medical Tribune (October 29, 1986): p. 46.13. Gene Bylinsky, “New Breakthroughs in the Fight Against Pain,” Fortune (March 22, 1993): p. 116.14. Matthew Conolly, MD, letter to the author, August 2, 1993.15. Jane M. Anderson, “Pain Management: Challenging the Myths,” Medical World News (April 1992): p. 20.16. David E. Weissman, June L. Dahl, and John W. Beasley, “The Caner Pain Role Model Program of the Wisconsin Cancer Pain Initiative,” Journal of Pain and Symptom Management v. 8 (January 1993): p. 29.