Asunción, Paraguay, Jun 5, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The first Paraguayan Congress on Palliative Medicine took place this weekend in Asuncion, in an effort to provide a moral alternative to euthanasia.  Palliative medicine, as a medical field, deals with care for terminally ill patients, both at the physical and psychiatric level, assuring them relief from pain. 

The Congress was held on Friday and Saturday at the Granados Park Hotel and was organized by the St. Rafael Foundation, the Paraguayan Society for Palliative Medicine, the Cancer Institute and the Paraguayan Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Among the experts who participated were Marcos Gomez Sancho, founder and director of the Palliative Care Unit at the Gran Canaries Hospital in Spain.

Physical therapist Thomas Solente, and Pedro Kriskovich, a volunteer at the House of Divine Providence, said the event aimed to reach out to people who work with terminally ill patients, listen to analysis by international experts on the latest medical advances and “reflect on the importance of professional and ethical care for the infirm.”