![]() Both are referred to as “opioids.” They are the two most commonly used opioids in hospice and palliative care. There are many myths associated with morphine and oxycodone use. Help When You Are Not Ready for Hospice.Tree of Light: Remember Your Loved Ones.Watch as Caregivers Talk About Our Care.Help in Your Nursing Home or Assisted Living.The Butterfly Program & Pediatric Hospice Care. ![]() The Quebec National Assembly also addressed palliative sedation in its Act Respecting End-of-Life Care – establishing that Quebeckers have a right to palliative sedation but narrowly defining palliative sedation as not hastening death.įor a full discussion of palliative sedation, see: Jocelyn Downie & Richard Liu, “The Legal Status of Deep and Continuous Palliative Sedation without Artificial Nutrition and Hydration” (2018) 12:1 McGill JL & Health 29. The Société Québécoise des médecins de soins palliatifs and the Collège des médecins du Québec have provided practice guidelines on palliative sedation at the end of life to help guide physician practice. Any withholding or withdrawal of IV fluids and artificial nutrition would cause the patient’s death. Any withholding or withdrawal of IV fluids and artificial nutrition would be unlikely to cause the patient’s death.ĭeep and continuous sedation without IV fluids and artificial nutrition may be illegal when death is not expected for many months. “Close to death” means death is expected within a couple of weeks. Any withholding or withdrawal of IV fluids and artificial nutrition would in no way cause the patient’s death.ĭeep and continuous sedation without IV fluids and artificial nutrition is likely legal when the patient is close to death. “Very close to death” means death is expected within a couple of days. That will depend on how far away from death the patient is.ĭeep and continuous sedation without IV fluids and artificial nutrition is clearly legal when the patient is very close to death. However, if a doctor gives deep and continuous sedation and stops IV fluids and artificial nutrition, this may or may not be legal. If a doctor gives deep and continuous sedation and continues IV fluids and artificial nutrition, this is clearly legal. Your doctor might suggest that you or your family ask for palliative sedation when there is no other way to relieve your suffering. Others define it as giving a patient drugs that cause them to lose consciousness and stopping any IV fluids and artificial nutrition. Some people define it as giving a patient drugs that cause them to lose consciousness. Palliative sedation has been defined in two different ways. Attorney General (Canada) “potentially life-shortening symptom relief is permissible where the physician’s intention is to ease pain.” Similarly, in 2012, the Supreme Court of British Columbia wrote in Carter v. The court said that legally the difference is clear. The difference, said the court, is in the doctor’s intention. If a doctor eases pain by giving drugs that they know could cause your death, it is not same as a doctor giving drugs with the goal of bringing death sooner. The Supreme Court of Canada said in the Sue Rodriguez case in 1993 that palliative treatments that could shorten life are not illegal. ![]() Is potentially life-shortening opioid use legal?Ĭanadian courts have said that it can be legal for a doctor to give a patient opioids to manage pain and other forms of suffering - even enough that they know could hasten death. In very rare cases, doctors will not be able to tell how much of the drug can be given or how fast it can be given without hastening death. In very rare cases, the amount of the drug needed or the speed at which the drug needs to be given to control your pain may slow breathing so much that it hastens death. They include morphine, codeine, meperidine, and oxycodone. Opioids are drugs used to treat serious pain. What is potentially life-shortening opioid use?ĭoctors commonly treat pain near the end of life by giving opioids. These are called “potentially life-shortening opioid use” and “palliative sedation.” While all palliative care aims to help you to be as comfortable as possible, two practices that can be part of palliative care may also bring death more quickly. Palliative care can also include counseling and spiritual support.
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