Sigrid Sterckx is a Professor of Ethics at Ghent University and at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium. Kasper Raus is a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, Belgium. Freddy Mortier is a Professor of Ethics at Ghent University, Belgium.

• 1. Introduction Sigrid Sterckx, Kasper Raus and Freddy Mortier; 2. Continuous sedation until death: state of the art Sophie Bruinsma, Judith Rietjens and Agnes van der Heide; 3. Death by equivocation: a manifold definition of terminal sedation David Albert Jones; 4. Palliative sedation: clinical, pharmacological and practical aspects Josep Porta-Sales; 5. Clinical aspects of palliative sedation Nigel Sykes; 6. Understanding the role of nurses in the management of symptoms and distress in the last days of life Eleanor Wilson and Jane Seymour; 7. Principle and practice for palliative sedation: gaps between the two David Orentlicher; 8. The legal permissibility of continuous deep sedation at the end of life: a comparison of laws and a proposal Evelien Delbeke; 9. The Dutch national guideline on palliative sedation Johan Legemaate; 10. Continuous deep sedation at the end of life: balancing benefits and harms in England, Germany and France Richard Huxtable and Ruth Horn; 11. Can the doctrine of double effect justify continuous deep sedation at the end of life? Kasper Raus, Sigrid Sterckx and Freddy Mortier; 12. Palliative sedation, consciousness and personhood Timothy Holahan, Thomas Carroll, Claudia Gonzalez and Timothy Quill; 13. The ethical evaluation of continuous sedation at the end of life Johannes van Delden; 14. Terminal sedation and euthanasia – the virtue in calling a spade what it is Søren Holm; 15. Terminal sedation: recasting a metaphor as the ars moriendi changes Margaret Battin.

'Continuous Sedation at the End of Life offers a thorough and thoughtful analysis of a complex and vexing issue. It successfully spans disciplines and jurisdictions as it provides clinical and epidemiological evidence about - and legal and ethical analyses of - a practice that is in real need of careful attention. By helping us to see that continuous sedation at the end of life needs to be (and how it can be) better understood, monitored, and regulated, this book has the potential to meaningfully contribute to the improvement of care of the dying across the globe.' Jocelyn Downie, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia