http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qps83/The_Report_18_02_2010/

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Blake Lapthorn solicitors' Clinical Negligence team has appeared on a Radio 4 programme, which focuses on the use and abuse of sedation in end of life care.

Radio 4's 'The Report', which was broadcast on Thursday 18 February, looked at palliative medicine and the use of drugs to sedate patients at the end of life. The medical technique widely used in the NHS, which some campaigners claim is euthanasia by the backdoor, is called terminal sedation and is used to ease the pain and suffering of the very sick. But critics say it can hasten death. The BBC's Linda Pressly investigated the extent of terminal sedation and examined if it is always in the interests of patients and their families.

The programme covered areas and topics such as:

* commentary from palliative care experts, medicine and the drugs used
* allegations of the drugs being abused, using family examples
* continuous deep sedation
* active euthanasia
* the Principle of Double Effect

John White from the firm's Clinical Negligence team featured in the programme alongside medical experts such as the President of the Association of Palliative Medicine for GB & Ireland; the Professor of Medical Sociology at Barts and the London School of Medicine; and a number of consultants working in this field.