If IV opioids are in short supply, who gets pain relief — a teenager in agony with a crushed leg or an 80-year-old dying from cancer?
When there is not enough pain medicine to go around, who gets it? The teenager in agony after a crushed leg, or the 80 year old down the hall dying an excruciating death from cancer?
Medication shortages are now a routine feature of American health care. At any moment, the Food and Drug Administration tracks dozens, often hundreds, of
drugs in short supply
, from antibiotics to chemotherapy agents. Hospitals have learned to adapt, substitute, and improvise.
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— Source: STAT News (https://www.statnews.com/2026/02/17/iv-opioid-shortages-ethics/)
