Palliative care as a medical specialty in the UAE is still very much in the nascent stages of development. Although the first palliative care service started in 2007, expansion has been slow, and palliative care services remain closely affiliated with a small number of oncology hospitals in the major cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The benefits of palliative care for both patients and their families are well established, with a growing evidence base, and within the UAE, we see that there is a growing recognition of the value of and the need for palliative care practitioners. While the general population’s expectation of what modern medicine is able to provide is constantly being raised, this is also tempered by an increasing awareness of the relevance of quality of life, particularly for patients approaching the end of life. Pain remains the symptom most associated with suffering and a worse quality of life, and over the past few years, access to opioid analgesics has improved dramatically, although there still remain challenges to prescribing in the outpatient setting and for patients who wish to have end-of-life care at home. In this chapter, we introduce the concept of palliative care and discuss the unique challenges in the provision of palliative care in the UAE and recommendations for future service development.