Palliative sedation in adult patients – ethical aspects

The aim of this article is to present selected ethical aspects concerning palliative sedation. Because there is a lack of a comprehensive terminology and universal definition of palliative sedation, it is difficult to compare the results of trials and observations and analysis of ethical aspects are often superficial, difficult or even impossible. Three main key problems are addressed: a) what impact palliative sedation might have on patients life and understanding, b) what is the relevance of the “double effect” theory in this context, and c) what are the perceived differences between palliative sedation and euthanasia. In conclusion, we found difficult to assess the influence of palliative sedation on patients’ understanding and life and we confirmed that the assessment of the “double effect” theory is controversial. finally, we were able to distinguish palliative sedation, an integral part of palliative medicine, which remains very different to euthanasia.