Terminal sedation usually refers to when a consenting patient is sedated to the point of unconsciousness to relieve otherwise untreatable pain and suffering, and is then allowed to die of dehydration or other intervening complications. The goal of administering the sedative, to relieve otherwise unrelievable suffering, is good. Whether death is intended or merely foreseen is less clear, and the practice is sometimes referred to as “slow euthanasia”.
Terminal sedation usually refers to when a consenting patient is sedated to the point of unconsciousness to relieve otherwise untreatable pain and suffering, and is then allowed to die of dehydration or other intervening complications. The goal of administering the sedative, to relieve otherwise unrelievable suffering, is good. Whether death is intended or merely foreseen is less clear, and the practice is sometimes referred to as “slow euthanasia”. Unlike the use of high-dose opioids to relieve pain, with death as a possible but undesired side effect, terminal sedation inevitably causes death, which in many cases is what the patient desires. Although the overall goal of terminal sedation is to relieve otherwise uncontrollable suffering, life-prolonging therapies are withdrawn. As a result, it is often termed “slow euthanasia” if nutrition and hydration are withheld, because under such circumstances the intent of hastening death is obvious.
See
Terminal sedation Fact Sheet
Patient Refusal of Nutrition and Hydration. Ira R. Byock, American Journal Hospice & Palliative Care, March/April 1995
Responding to Intractable Terminal Suffering: The Role of Terminal Sedation and Voluntary Refusal of Food and Fluids. Ira Byock and Timothy Quill, Annals of Internal Medicine, 2000