terminal sedation
palliative sedation

Terminal sedation is legal in the United States of America.

There can be a fine line between terminal sedation that results in death by dehydration and euthanasia.

According to the Alliance (www.hospicepatients.org), medical staff who administer such treatments call it "terminal sedation."

Against this, some practitioners offer the solution of "terminal sedation" or "pharmacological oblivion".

In these rare cases, the patient should be allowed to be administered "suitable, deep and terminal sedation," it said.

It makes no sense that terminal sedation is permitted in some cases yet a preferred quick release is always denied.

But terminal patients who are not connected to life support have only one gruesome option known as "terminal sedation."

Finally, terminal sedation implies, as a colleague of mine says, “a one-way ticket.”

For example, when serious suffering cannot otherwise be relieved, "terminal sedation" is permissible in law and in medical ethics.

Many experts prefer the term "palliative sedation" instead of "terminal sedation".

Refractory symptoms and terminal sedation of children: Ethical Issues and practical management.

As patients undergoing terminal sedation are typically in the last hours or days of their lives, they are not usually eating or drinking significant amounts.

Dr. Miles also defended terminal sedation: "Sometimes, particularly with cancer patients, you have to wind up sedating people as a way of solving their pain."

(See terminal sedation)

Terminal Sedation", The World Federation of Right to Die Societies"

Dr Harrison said he is concerned about what could be going on across the NHS in the name of caring and terminal sedation.

Sarah Wootton, its chief executive, said they were concerned by "the ethical fudge which permits the refusal of treatment and terminal sedation, but not assisted dying".

Among the most controversial discussed issues of "terminal sedation" are the questions of when and for which forms of intractable suffering sedation may be indicated.

Palliative sedation can be used for short periods with the plan to awaken the patient after a given time period, making terminal sedation a less correct term.

Critics say terminal sedation violates the principle of double effect because its intention is not just to relieve pain and let death happen, but actually to cause death.

Terminal Sedation: Euthanasia in Disguise (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2004).

Advocates of euthanasia on both sides of the Atlantic are now trying to exploit the practice of 'terminal sedation' or 'slow euthanasia' for their own ends.

Before initiating terminal sedation, a discussion about the risks, benefits and goals of nutrition and fluids is encouraged, and is mandatory in the United Kingdom.

One expert, Dr. Steven Miles, a specialist in end-of-life care at the University of Minnesota, said the deaths may have occurred during terminal sedation.

The “last, last resort,” and by far the most controversial of the legal methods, is sedation to the point of unconsciousness, also known as palliative or terminal sedation.