Kaiser Mahmood.
Physician–assisted suicide and palliative sedation: A matter of intention.
Rawal Med J Jan ;32(1):82-4.

Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), a major form of euthanasia, has received much attention of the public. As a matter of fact, it is not active euthanasia. In, PAS, Physician does not inject a patient with death-causing drug as in active euthanasia but rather provides patients with drugs that they will take themselves. It is thus a form of suicide. The cardinal function of Palliative Care is to provide comfort care to the patient by focusing on relieving symptoms such as pain and anxiety. Palliative sedation is the use of sedative medications to relieved extreme pain by making the patient unaware and unconscious while the disease takes it course, finally leading to death. In both PAS and Palliative sedation the role of intention cannot be ignored. In PAS, physician is intending to help cause the death of the patient and in palliative sedation, physician is not intending to cause or shorten the life of the patient. (Rawal Med J 2007;32:82-84)

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com