Bearing in mind that my medical training and experience were more than 25 years ago, and that what I learned was primarily focused on getting patients to a hospital alive and without further harm, don't take anything that I have to say as being any more valid than anyone else's.
I would hope and suspect that in 2026, there would be options for people who are unable to swallow pills or tablets, such as liquid or even sublingual forms of the same or alternative medications. I don't know this for a fact, but I would certainly inquire about it if I were facing such a dilemma.
Veering from the subject slightly to deal with the larger perspective, you probably all know that I like to take as few medications as possible, and that I look closely at the side effects or, more importantly, the serious consequences that might come from medications I am being prescribed because I know that there is more of me than the particular problem the physician is focusing on at the moment, and I don't want to take something for one problem that is likely to cause an even greater problem.
You might also know that I am skeptical of alternative therapies, supplements, and the like, not because I doubt that any of them could be beneficial, but because the information around them is always fuzzy and sometimes dubious.
HOWEVER, and this is important, if I were dealing with a disease or condition that established medical science does not have a cure for, in other words, if my doctor tells me that I am going to die from whatever it is that I have, then I might consider alternative therapies - not with a view to confidence that they are going to work, but because I wouldn't want to just lay around and die, and I say this well aware that eventually, unless we go suddenly, we're all going to have to face laying around waiting for death to claim us. Given that I have had cancer twice already, there's a good chance that I will eventually die of cancer, and I won't pretend that doesn't scare me. I am taking as good care of myself as I can, and trying to mostly eat the right foods, as much as I can afford, anyhow, but that's not going to make me immortal.
If I were suffering from a disease that has a reasonable chance of a cure, then I would like to think that I could endure a significant amount of pain with an eye towards the time when the condition would be cured, and the pain would go away naturally. However, if I were challenged with an incurable condition or one that I am unlikely to be successful in battling, then I suspect that I would want my last days to be as pain-free as possible, and I probably wouldn't be overly concerned about the side effects, given that what was right in front of me was going to end my life anyhow.
I like to think that I wouldn't want to take a pain medication that would leave me unable to communicate with the people I care for, but I am not yet dealing with such pain, so I can't really say what I might decide at that point, and certainly wouldn't fault anyone who chose to zonk out on morphine or whatever else might be available these days.
When you are unable to recover from a problem, then comfort might very well rise to the forefront of all other considerations,