The ethical validity and clinical experience of palliative sedation

Mayo Clin Proc. 2000 Oct;75(10):1064-9. doi: 10.4065/75.10.1064.

Abstract

The physician's main goal in caring for a dying person is to reduce suffering, including pain, physical symptoms, and emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual distress. In refractory and intractable cases, palliative sedation offers a compassionate and humane alternative to conscious and continual suffering, both for the patient and the patient's family. Without a doubt, further studies are necessary, particularly in cases of cognitive impairment, but palliative sedation offers a valuable and efficacious intervention for interminable suffering at the end of life.

MeSH terms

  • Death
  • Ethics, Medical*
  • Family Health
  • Freedom
  • Humanism
  • Humans
  • Hypnotics and Sedatives / therapeutic use*
  • Pain / prevention & control
  • Palliative Care*
  • Stress, Psychological / prevention & control
  • Terminal Care*
  • Terminally Ill

Substances

  • Hypnotics and Sedatives