Resumo

CASAS MARTINEZ, Ma. de la Luz. Terminal sedation, euthanasia and bioethics. Rev cubana med [online]. 2005, vol.44, n.5-6, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-302X.

It has been observed that as a result of the world debate raised by Terry Schiavo's case about the ethics and lawfulness of the interruption of vital support measures in irrecoverable patients, topics related to euthanasia have been dealt with again. One of these topics is the utilization of sedation in palliative care and wether or not this measure could be considered as passive euthanasia. It is known that in palliative care the administration of sedatives per se is not an ethical problem if they are prescribed under the correct indications and with the patient's consent. The objective of this article was to clear up some aspects on this topic and their possible ethical application in palliative care. The bioethical analysis method was selected within the humanist trend. To conclude, the point conditions in which the use of terminal sedation is ethically acceptable were presented.

Palavras-chave : Palliative care; sedation; euthanasia; bioethics.

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