Ethical issues around continuous deep sedation without hydration

Beland P (2012) Ethical issues around continuous deep sedation without hydration. Nursing Times; 108: 38, 22-25. By reviewing the literature on the subject, this article examines whether continuous deep sedation without hydration - in the context of palliative care for patients with advanced cancer at the end of life - could be seen as a moral and clinical equivalent of so-called “slow euthanasia”.

It focuses on length of survival, fluid retention and thirst, and reviews the evidence and lack of it that supports or questions the practice of withholding parenteral fluids at the sedated and palliated end of life.

When terminally ill patients are given continuous deep sedation without hydration, should we call it a form of palliative care, or is it in fact slow euthanasia?

In this article…

• Why stopping hydration in terminally ill patients under continuous deep sedation is contentious

• Fluid retention as a reason for ceasing hydration

• Evidence on using or withholding artificial hydration