Grant: CIHR Journalism Award

My proposal is to study an emerging yet controversial medical therapy called palliative sedation. The therapy is used to treat terminally ill patients who are experiening refractory and intolerable systems in the final stages of life. It involves the monitored administration of drugs to induce various levels unconsciousness at the end stage of life. It is used but not restricted to those who are experiencing unendurable pain caused by cancer. It is controversial becuase while many health care professionals view it as a humane way to end suffering they can do nothing about - others have called it "slow euthanasia". There are currently no national guidelines in Canada for medical experts to use when using the drug therapy. when to use it, which drugs to use, how to properly monitor it. Nor are there any national organizations in Canada tracking it's use.