Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

  1. Tony Sheldon
  1. Utrecht

    The Dutch Medical Association has laid down guidance on doctors' use of sedation to induce a coma in dying patients and relieve their pain and suffering.

    It tries to make clear the difference between such sedation, which is produced with sedatives such as midazolam and which the guidance calls palliative sedation, and euthanasia. It says palliative sedation is “normal medical treatment” that does not “accelerate death” and that it has been incorrectly associated with “life ending treatment.”

    Explicitly excluded from palliative sedation is the …

    Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment

    Article access

    Article access for 1 day

    Purchase this article for £20 $30 €32*

    The PDF version can be downloaded as your personal record

    * Prices do not include VAT

    THIS WEEK'S POLL