Acknowledgments

Research for this report was conducted by Diederik Lohman, associate director of the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and Andrea Herrera García, a Mexican psychologist specialized in palliative care. Lohman wrote the report. It was reviewed by Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch; Daniel Wilkinson, deputy director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch; Juliane Kippenberg, senior researcher in the Children’s Rights Division, Aisling Reidy, senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch; and Babatunde Olugboji, deputy director of the Program Office at Human Rights Watch.

Nik Steinberg and Guillermo Farias, senior México researcher and associate in the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, as well as Alex Gertner, Jennifer Pierre and Margaret Wurth, associates in the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, provided invaluable assistance, as did Matthew Simon, fellow with the Health and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Production assistance was provided by Amanda Bailly, Grace Choi, Fitzroy Hepkins, Josh Lyons, José Martinez, Kathy Mills, and Jennifer Pierre.

This report would not have been possible without the many important contributions from the following people who interned at Human Rights Watch between 2011 and 2014: Stephanie Ashton, Theresa Cheng, Sara Duenas-Helton, Jeffrey Eamon, Tiziana Lemma, Sandra Sanchez-Nery, and John Thorpe.

Human Rights Watch is deeply grateful to the many palliative care patients in México who, despite being gravely ill, agreed to be interviewed for this report.

We are also greatly indebted to the many palliative care and public health advocates, doctors, nurses, social workers and volunteers in México and elsewhere whose support enabled us to 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. A special thanks to Dr. Felicia Knaul of the Mexican Public Health Foundation and the breast cancer organization Tómatelo a Pecho who, upon learning of this work, made it her own and has not stopped fighting for change since.

Finally, we would be remiss not to acknowledge Dr. Eduardo González-Pier, deputy health minister, Mikel Arriola-Peñalosa, commissioner of COFEPRIS, Dr. Javier Dávila-Torres, medical director of IMSS, and Supreme Court Justice José-Ramón Cossío-Díaz and their teams for their willingness to engage in open and constructive discussions with the Mexican medical community, civil society organizations and Human Rights Watch on how the availability, accessibility and quality of palliative care and pain treatment in México can be improved. The positive steps identified in this report are the initial results of their efforts. We hope many more will follow.