The ethical and legal aspects of palliative sedation in severely brain-injured patients: a French perspective.

ABSTRACT: To fulfill their crucial duty of relieving suffering in their patients, physicians may have to administer palliative sedation when they implement treatment-limitation decisions such as the withdrawal of life-supporting interventions in patients with poor prognosis chronic severe brain injury. The issue of palliative sedation deserves particular attention in adults with serious brain injuries and in neonates with severe and irreversible brain lesions, who are unable to express pain or to state their wishes. In France, treatment limitation decisions for these patients are left to the physicians. Treatment-limitation decisions are made collegially, based on the presence of irreversible brain lesions responsible for chronic severe disorders of consciousness. Before these decisions are implemen

SUBMITTER: Baumann A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3041748 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature