Marilyn Webb

In the following viewpoint, Marilyn Webb describes the benefits of hospice, a health care philosophy and practice that attends to the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of the dying. Hospice workers—who may work in a residential facility or in a home—focus on alleviating the physical pain of terminal illness; they also help individuals face an impending death and achieve a psychological closure to life. The value of such assistance for the dying, Webb points out, has been largely ignored by the mainstream medical community. Webb is the author of The Good Death: The New American Search to Reshape the End of Life, from which this viewpoint is excerpted.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Sister Loretta, cited by the author, why do some dying patients...