Editorial: Full-text - The Use of Sedation in Palliative Care

"....Often pain and suffering make it difficult for patients themselves to participate, further reducing their autonomy and empowerment. Patients should be kept fully empowered by being thoroughly informed of all means available to reduce their symptoms and maximize their comfort at the earliest possible stage of their palliative care."

"Dying patients in palliative care settings deserve to have maximum control over their futures. This includes full disclosure on the use and effectiveness of sedation for palliative ends. Allowing patients more decision-making power in choosing various levels of sedation through to CDS would significantly improve the dying process while maintaining ethically sound practices as viewed by all parties concerned. Health care practitioners would not have to feel that they are hastening death. Patients would have greater control over their symptoms. Family members would not have to watch their loved ones endure dysteleological suffering. It is the best we can do when facing our finitude, and dying patients deserve our best."