RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Optimal relief for pain at the end of life: a caregiver’s tale JF Medical Humanities JO J Med Humanit FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics SP medhum-2017-011427 DO 10.1136/medhum-2017-011427 A1 David B Morris YR 2018 UL http://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2018/04/18/medhum-2017-011427.abstract AB The current opioid crisis—driven partly by medical overprescription and partly by illegal drug abuse—is a significant cultural and professional dilemma in the USA and elsewhere. It has produced a strong reaction in favour of restricting medical use of opioids for pain, especially chronic pain. The author for a quarter century has written about pain from a biocultural perspective, and in this essay—based on his experience as primary caregiver for his late wife—he approaches the question of appropriate opioid use at the end of life.