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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2022
Opioids are a powerful tool for relieving pain and preventing suffering. But they also can cause addiction, and in the early 2000s the United States experienced a massive opioid epidemic, leading to over 400,000 deaths. For many of the millions who survived addiction, the experience was miserable. Medical bioethicist Travis Reider, who became addicted while undergoing a series of surgeries after his foot was crushed in a motorcycle accident, said that as he went through withdrawal “every moment in those four weeks was the worst moment of my life.” It was so bad that for his final surgery he decided to suffer through excruciating post-operation pain rather than take opioids to treat it.
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