The following ethical concerns in palliative care in Mexico have been mentioned in interviews:

• ‘conspiracy of silence’ amongst family and physicians and the withholding of information to patients
• lack of guidelines and legal framework for some medical practices conducted at the end of life, such as terminal sedation or discontinuation of active treatments
• considering euthanasia as an option at the end of life without having enough knowledge of palliative medicine and without assessing its value and potential
• families’ misconceptions on the scope of palliative care, frequently understood to be a practice close to euthanasia
• the futility of medically active treatments prescribed to terminally ill patients
• insufficient health resources allocated to end of life care