Dr. Hannah Linane:

You come up against the principle of double effect a lot, and whether it is permissible to a perform an action intended to be good, even if there are unintended bad consequences when the risks and benefits are weighted up. You could argue that for most medical interventions, giving antibiotics could result in allergic reactions. It tends to be looked at just for end of life, but we use our medications so carefully. As part of normal dying people become more fatigued and less responsive. We use medications very carefully and with doses that would not hasten someone's death, but I think it is a big fear for people. It actually makes people uncomfortable and prevents them from going on medications that could improve their symptoms a lot.