Does "snowing" really exist?

[heyday]

I'm in my first year of nursing school, and I just learned about the underground issue of "snowing"--giving patients enough morphine to keep them out of pain but ultimately totally depressing their respiratory centers. I have never heard of this euthanasia-like thing before, and I wondered if the decision comes up for most people. And what could you do if asked to do this but did not feel comfortable with it?

Thanks!

[neneRN, BSN, RN]

I think of "snowing the pt" more as heavily sedating them, not necessarily a terminal type. Most often seen done on our psych pts in the ER- keep hitting them with meds until they stop screaming/kicking/punching/biting/spitting, and finally go to sleep (the snoring kind of sleep if that needs clarification!)