Review Article
The Use of Palliative Sedation for Terminally Ill Patients: Review of the Literature and an Argumentative Essay
Mohammad M. Khader1* and Majd T. Mrayyan21Oncology Health Nursing, The Hashemite University, Faculty of Nursing, Jordan
2Consultant of Nursing, The Hashemite University, Jordan
- Corresponding Author:
- Mohammad M. Khader, R.N, M.Sc
Oncology Health Nursing, Jordan
Tel: +962785100351
Fax: +962 (5) 3903351
E-mail: mohammad_khader_88@yahoo.com
Received Date: April 07, 2015 Accepted Date: July 09, 2015 Published Date: July 13, 2015
Citation: Khader MM, Mrayyan MT (2015) The Use of Palliative Sedation for Terminally Ill Patients: Review of the Literature and an Argumentative Essay. J Palliat Care Med 5:226. doi:10.4172/2165-7386.1000226
Copyright: © 2015 Khader MM, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Palliative sedation for terminally ill patients, with a life expectancy of less than two weeks to control patients’ intolerable pain and symptoms, is an intervention that raises many legal and ethical controversial issues. The purpose of this paper is to write an argumentative essay to support the use of palliative sedation for terminally ill patients, taking into consideration the legal and ethical points of view of opponents and proponents. Although it is illegal in some countries such as France, Jordan and New-Zealand, palliative sedation for terminally ill patients is legally sound for other countries such as USA, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, and Netherlands. Ethically, opponents consider palliative sedation for terminally ill patients as a misleading concept as it hastens death and negatively influences patients’ family members, and it may be misused by health team members. Whereas, proponents debate that palliative sedation is a multidisciplinary intervention that should be considered as a last resort for terminally ill patients with the main intention of relieving patients’ agony and having no effect on patients’ survival; moreover, it positively influences patients’ family members. The author is encouraged to support the use of palliative sedation as it is a multidisciplinary judgement which guarantees that any decision made is built on the latest evidence-based guidelines and is ethically accepted according to the principles of beneficence, autonomy, and doctrine of double effect. Additionally, it is the last and only intervention to alleviate patients’ suffering without affecting patients’ survival, thus causing family members to accept the use of palliative sedation for their loved ones.
