TO THE EDITOR:
The Daily Tar Heel’s Life & Death issue addressed an important topic that’s frequently (and unhealthily) suppressed. I was disappointed to see that the paper chose to cover the Final Exit Network — a group of suicide babysitters — rather than drawing attention to the work of hospice nurses.
Death can be ugly, painful and frightening, both for the dying patient and for their loved ones. Hospice nurses make this universal experience more humane. The palliative care they provide is unglamorous, and the outcome is always the same. But anybody who has witnessed the sometimes extended process of death will tell you that hospice nurses — and the powerful drugs they are trained to administer — spare their patients needless agony and allow families to say a dignified goodbye.
Sam Shaw
Senior
History