In this presentation, I ask: what duties do we have to patients with chronic pain? I examine the case of Daniel, a 48-year-old man with chronic back, neck and head pain after a motor vehicle accident 8 years previously. I argue that our foremost duty to patients with chronic pain is not to reduce their pain intensity but to improve their health. Titrating opioid doses to a pain level may reduce pain and at the same time make it harder for a patient to live his or her life.