The ethical validity and clinical experience of palliative sedation.
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.
Rousseau
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VA Medical Center, Phoenix, Ariz. 85310, USA. PalliativeDoctor@aol.com
D003643:Death; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005192:Family Health; D005610:Freedom; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010146:Pain / Q000517:prevention & control; D010166:Palliative Care; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control; D013727:Terminal Care; D019452:Terminally Ill
D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives