Published: April 6, 2011
In reference to the article in the Rutland Herald about the “right-to-die” bill,” I noted that there was no mention of hospice care as an option to help people cope with pain and suffering at the end of life. Apart from the whole issue of a law for the right for people to kill themselves, there are other options or choices for people at the end of life, hospice and palliative care. All hospice providers in Vermont provide charity care to those who have no insurance. Vermont ranks toward the bottom of all states in the usage of the hospice benefit. If more people at the end of life accessed their hospice benefit, maybe they would not feel the need to be “put out of their misery.”
SHARON LaPORTE, R.N.