My cousin was diagnosed with terminal cancer last summer. We have tried to keep in touch as best we could but we got word last night that it was only a matter of hours.

I drove my Mom to Pascagoula, MS this morning and arrived at the hospice where my cousin is staying for her last days.

As soon as I entered the place it was like stepping into hell. There were people in various stages of excruciating death in every room. The first sound I heard was a man screaming for morphine.

It turned my stomach.

This is supposed to be compassionate care? I mean Jesus. What would these people do to their enemies?

I have been around the dying before. I have looked into the blank, empty eyes of those who know their hours are numbered. This was something different. These weren't young people fighting to live against grievous injury or illness. These were elderly people who were looking forward to the release of death.

My cousin was so bad off that she didn't even know that we were there. She was so emaciated that she only weights 70 pounds. The cancer had broken out in blotches on her skin.

What the f**k is this? What kind of religious fanatic bullshit is it that says that you have to suffer as long as is medically possible before you die so they can milk your insurance as long as possible?

What kind of ghoulish morons think that it would be murder to give someone in such a state a little too much morphine so that they can simply go to sleep and be released from the pain?

There is something badly wrong with health care. This is it. It is in the hands of the hypocritical oath that decrees that dying patients should suffer as long as their insurance holds out.

This is hell. We are all in danger of ending up there unless we have the good sense and strength to eat a bullet and save ourselves and our families the misery of modern medicine.

The people that I saw today were already dead and they were in hell.