The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. Palliative sedation: May we sleep before we die? Retrieved February 24, 2002, from http://www.cbhd.org/newsletter/012/012kingsbury.htm.
This article is based on palliative sedation, which is important therapeutic intervention in the imminently dying patient. This procedure is usually used when standard palliative care interventions have been unsuccessful to grant adequate relief. These patients in whom palliative sedation has been used are usually in extreme pain, agitated delirium, dyspnea and psychological distress. Palliative sedation is the deliberate inducing and maintaining deep sleep but not deliberately causing death. There is a controversy whether palliative sedation is truly a form of euthanasia. But the proper intent in palliative sedation is to offer relief of pain and suffering. It is discussed that the physician intent is debatable. Is it truly that the physician is trying to help the dieing patient or is the physician trying to speed up death processes. This is based on the deontology theory. .
This article was very interesting to me. It made me wonder as a nurse would I feel comfortable doing this? I do believe that a person should be as pain free as possible, but how far should we take this? I don't believe we should help someone die, but I do believe we should help our patient die with grace and dignity. And who are we to determine that a person should not suffer. The bible tells us that god demonstrates his power and love in the midst of our suffering (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). I do strongly believe that God does not give us more than what we can endure and that he has bigger plans that neither you or I can understand nor we might never know or understand the reason why he does the thing he does. Untimely I fell God loves us and he would not fails us specially when we need him the most. .