What is palliative sedation, and how does it differ from euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide?

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Palliative sedation is used to relieve intractable symptoms in a seriously ill patient by lowering consciousness with sedatives, with the explicit aim of comfort rather than shortening life. The crucial point is intention: the goal is symptom relief, and death, if it occurs, is not the objective, though it may happen as an unintended byproduct under the double-effect principle. Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide involves deliberate actions to end the patient’s life or to assist them in dying, with the primary aim being death and under different legal and regulatory frameworks. Therefore, palliative sedation is ethically and legally distinct from euthanasia or PAS because of its intent and oversight, even if it may hasten death in rare cases.