This article is a response to Thomas David Riisfeldt's paper entitled 'Weakening the ethical
distinction between euthanasia, palliative opioid use and palliative sedation'. It is shown that
as far as euthanasia and palliative sedation are concerned, Riisfeldt has not established that
a common ground, or a similarity, between the two is the relief of suffering. Quite the
contrary, this is not characteristic of euthanasia, neither by definition nor from a clinical point
of view. Hence, the argument hinges on a conceptually and empirically erroneous premise …