Relieving suffering

Thank you for this very relevant article, Dr. Langlois. As a semi-retired family physician now doing part-time counselling in Advance Care Planning and end-of life issues, I share many of the emotions you've expressed about palliative sedation and the privilege we have in bearing witness to the journey our patients are on. I will pass on to you the very valuable advice I received from a palliative care mentor before I undertook this counselling role: If possible, take the "Being with Dying" and the recently added "Being with Suffering" courses at Upaya Zen Centre in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My experience with Upaya, it's founder, Roshi Joan Halifax and the other teachers, including Frank Ostaseski have been life-altering. Not surprisingly, they use a mindfulness approach and stress self-care as much as patient care. Attending in person, when it re-opens, is ideal, but there are webinars and sessions that can be mind-expanding and incredibly useful in the meantime at www.upaya.org.
I hope you are able to reap the benefits as I have. All the best.