The Experiences of Bereaved Relatives with Palliative Sedation and other End-of-life Care Practices

__Abstract__ During the past century, the circumstances in which people die have changed substantially. Acute deaths due to infectious diseases have been gradually replaced by more prolonged dying trajectories (1). One third of all deaths in The Netherlands occur suddenly and unexpectedly (2, 3). The increasing importance of chronic diseases as a cause of death and the attention currently being paid to patient-centred care at the end of life have created interest in the role of medicine in the timing and mode of death and dying (1). In many instances, death is not merely the result of the natural course of a lethal disease: medical decision-making often has an active role (2, 4-6). Such decision-making may concern the use of medical treatment to prolong the life of seriously ill patients (7). However, there is increasingly recognition that extension of life might not always be the most appropriate goal of medicine. Other goals have to guide medical decision-making at the end of life, such as improvement of quality of life of patients and their families by prevention and relief of suffering (8). Sometimes, patie