Mother Teresa’s care for dying people remains contested 10 years after her canonization. Critics, most prominently Christopher Hitchens, accused her Kalighat home in Calcutta of providing inadequate care and withholding anesthetics, while Jim Towey, her former legal counsel, said limited medical supplies—not indifference—explained the lack of pain medication. 1

Mother Teresa’s work with the dying

Mother Teresa was canonized on September 4, 2016, after decades of operating homes for poor and seriously ill people around the world. Pope John Paul II described her as an “icon of the Good Samaritan” and praised her total dedication to the poor. 1

Her “home for the dying” in Kalighat, Calcutta, remains open. The facility cares for people with nowhere else to go, including individuals who are dying, and is operated by the Missionaries of Charity. 1

According to Towey, the sisters brought people from Calcutta’s streets into the home, cleaned them, and made them comfortable. He said roughly half died while the others eventually recovered and left. 1

The criticism over pain relief

The most prominent criticism came from British atheist Christopher Hitchens, who visited the Kalighat facility in the early 1980s and later criticized its standard of care. Critics have alleged that the sisters refused to administer anesthetics or adequate painkillers to people suffering at the facility. 1

Towey said these accusations were based on Hitchens’ visit and accounts from a small number of former Missionaries of Charity members. He rejected the claim that Mother Teresa was indifferent to physical suffering. 1

Conditions in Calcutta

Towey attributed the reported lack of strong pain medication to the medical and economic conditions in eastern India during the period when Hitchens visited. He said morphine was unavailable even in Calcutta hospitals and that anesthesia was difficult to obtain. 1

He also cited unreliable supply routes, limited Western investment and trade, and regional Cold War-era political conditions as obstacles to obtaining medical supplies. Towey said there was no dependable flow of medical equipment or medicines, but added that Mother Teresa used such supplies whenever they were available. 1

Hospice care versus hospital care

Towey said the Kalighat home should not be judged as though it were a modern hospital. He described it instead as a hospice home operating under difficult conditions, while acknowledging that the quality of medical care and pain relief has improved substantially since Hitchens’ visit. 1

He said he most recently visited the facility in May and observed major improvements in its medical care and pain-management practices. 1

Mother Teresa’s view of suffering

Towey said Mother Teresa believed in the spiritual meaning of suffering but did not reject the use of pain medication. He pointed to her own use of medicine for chronic back pain and injuries, including a broken shoulder. 1

In Towey’s account, her approach was to use available medical treatment to reduce suffering while also ensuring that patients felt loved, retained their God-given dignity, and received spiritual support when pain could not be fully relieved. 1

Continuing dispute

The article presents two competing accounts: critics describe Kalighat as providing inadequate medical treatment and insufficient pain relief, while Towey portrays Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity as offering the best care possible amid severe shortages. The account does not resolve the dispute independently, but emphasizes the changing standards and improved medical care at the facility since the 1980s. 1*