anaesthesia

Cross Post: End-of-Life Care: People Should Have the Option of General Anaesthesia as They Die

Published April 27, 2021 | By admin

Written by Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu

Dying patients who are in pain are usually given an analgesic, such as morphine, to ease their final hours and days. And if an analgesic isn’t enough, they can be given a sedative – something to make them more relaxed and less distressed at the end of life. We have recently written about a third approach: using a general anaesthetic to ensure that the dying patient is completely unconscious. This has been described previously, but largely overlooked.

There are two situations when a general anaesthetic might be used in dying patients. The first is when other drugs have not worked and the patient is still distressed or in pain. The second is when a patient has only a short time to live and expresses a clear wish to be unconscious. Some dying patients just want to sleep. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs, Dominic Wilkinson's Posts, Julian Savulescu's Posts, The Conversation | Tagged , , , ,

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