“One of the greatest fears of a dying patient is not death, but the pain associated with the final days of life.”

—R. Henry Capps Jr., medical student, East Carolina University School of Medicine

William Bergman, a retired railroad detective from Hayward, California, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in February 1998. According to his daughter, Beverly, Bergman’s two final wishes were to be free of pain and to live out the rest of his days at home with his family. Although Bergman arranged a release from the hospital and a return to his home, the drugs his internist prescribed for pain were largely ineffective. “He died at home,” states Beverly Bergman, “but in miserable pain.”

Beverly Bergman filed a complaint with the Medical Board of California, asking that her father’s physician be penalized for failing to prescribe...