Of course, in some ways they seem equivalent in principle; however, no, they're different.
Palliative sedation or continuous sedation till death—there are various terms that talk about it—is an accepted practice within the standard of care in certain circumstances.
Basically, it's the idea of sedating someone deeply—almost like you would during surgery—until death. Death doesn't happen quickly in those cases; Sharon might speak well about that too. It takes a long time to accompany someone through that, and one needs to titrate that very carefully, but yet it is an option out there. In Quebec law, they allow that for people who cannot consent on their own behalf. In a sense, they're allowing for something that's already allowed within medical practice. To be honest, I saw it more as political, you know, that we'd still allow for something.
The greater issue, I think, is the importance of consent. In regard to giving a substance that ends one's life very quickly, health professionals, health institutions, and, I believe, many patients, families, and individuals prefer someone to consent to that for themselves. I think that palliative sedation, or continuous palliative sedation, is a very good treatment modality among the varieties of treatment modalities that would not be used as a first or second line of treatment, but only when the suffering was really quite terrible. Some pain is really awful to see and very, very difficult to manage. I can imagine that it would be much easier for some people simply to be asleep, in a sense, rather than conscious.
I don't see a huge ethical difference. I see it more of an emotional difference. However, it requires resources.