Moral deliberation in palliative sedation focusing on an oncology palliative care team

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand how a palliative care team seeks solutions for ethical conflicts related to deep palliative sedation in everyday care and whether the discussions and the decisions that are made within the multidisciplinary team involve the sick person and his family. This is a descriptive exploratory qualitative study, based on dialectical hermeneutics. The research subjects were ten professionals on the health team of a hospital’s Oncology Palliative Care department. The results indicate that a humanistic attitude assumes, among many things, the prudent use of palliative sedation as an available resource to minimize suffering during the process of dying. The practice of palliative sedation requires a thorough analysis of the clinical facts, ethical reflection by the multidisciplinary team, as well as respect for the values of the sick person and their family and their participation, which would result in a process of moral deliberation.