Palliative Sedation

Second Hand Smoke, which is part of Firstthings.com which also contains the indispensable Gatewaypundit and The Anchoress, links to this NYTimes article which touches on the notions of comfort and euthanasia:

"Among those choices is terminal sedation, a treatment that is already widely used, even as it vexes families and a profession whose paramount rule is to do no harm.

Doctors who perform it say it is based on carefully thought-out ethical principles in which the goal is never to end someone’s life, but only to make the patient more comfortable.

But the possibility that the process might speed death has some experts contending that the practice is, in the words of one much-debated paper, a form of “slow euthanasia,” and that doctors who say otherwise are fooling themselves and their patients."

I have had discussions with a friend who happens to be a nurse and largely a libertarian in which that individual seems to realize that these complicated decisions are made all of the time but he would as well like to see euthanasia legalized. He cites Oregon as a success.

I have insisted to this individual that I don't want the government involved. Once they cross that threshold they can only ever be a menace.

As here, in Oregon.