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Thomas A. Hooyman, PhD; Christopher Veremakis, MD
St John's Mercy Medical Center St Louis, Mo

JAMA. 1992;268(14):1857-1858.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Wilson et al¹ recently reported their findings regarding the "Ordering and Administration of Sedatives and Analgesics During the Withholding and Withdrawal of Life Support From Critically Ill Patients." Two observations can be made regarding this research. First, it does not seem to be fair to compare comatose patients as a control group with noncomatose patients when examining the amount of time until death once life support was withheld or withdrawn.

As the authors indicate, the comatose patients would have been expected to die more quickly. However, to design a study comparing two groups of noncomatose patients in which one group is given sedatives and analgesics when life support is withheld or withdrawn and the other group is provided with no sedative or analgesic relief would be unethical, for it would violate the basic principle of beneficence. An argument could be made that with informed consent from . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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