[DOWNLOAD] "Terminal Sedation: Pulling the Sheet over Our Eyes (Essays)" by The Hastings Center Report " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Terminal Sedation: Pulling the Sheet over Our Eyes (Essays)
- Author : The Hastings Center Report
- Release Date : January 01, 2008
- Genre: Life Sciences,Books,Science & Nature,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 162 KB
Description
Terminal sedation--also called "palliative sedation," "continuous deep sedation," or "primary deep continuous sedation"--has become a new favorite in end-of-life care, a seeming compromise in the debate over physician-assisted dying. Like all compromises, it offers something to each side of a dispute. But it is not a real down-the-middle compromise. It sells out on most of the things that may be important--to both sides. To corrupt an already awkward metaphor, terminal sedation pulls the sheet over our eyes. Terminal sedation may still be an important option in end-of-life care, but we should not present it as the only option in difficult deaths. Proponents of assisted dying point to autonomy and mercy. The principle of autonomy holds that people are entitled to be the architects, as much as possible, of how they die. (Of course, autonomy has limits--one cannot inflict harm on others--and when one is no longer competent, values and interests may be expressed only indirectly; advance directives or surrogate decision-makers must be brought into play. But the principle itself is clear enough.) The principle of mercy requires that pain and suffering be relieved to the extent possible. These two principles operate in tandem to underwrite physician-assisted dying: physician assistance in bringing about death is to be provided just when the person voluntarily seeks it and just when it serves to avoid pain and suffering or the prospect of them. Both requirements must be met.