The hospice movement began in England in the late 1960′s as a benevolent movement to assist terminally ill patients in their final days, allowing them to return to their homes in most cases, and live with their loved ones while their pain is managed as well as possible.

Then came the profit motive.

Now in many cases, hospice care can last for months, not days or weeks, and rather than the increased care families expect, for-profit hospice care companies control labor costs by providing patients with less medical attention in a loved one’s final hours than they would have received in the hospital. In one example from the Bloomberg article at the link above, a hospice nurse tells a concerned son: “Our job is not to prepare them to live. Our job is to prepare them to die.” Meanwhile, his elderly mother’s wounded toe was allowed to develop gangrene, and later, a hospital removed 11 maggots.

As horrific as that story is, the nurse’s statement to the son might have horrified the people who began the hospice movement even more. Their goal was not to prepare people to die. On the contrary, the hospice movement was founded to enable dying people to live their final days more fully.

The Bible says, “You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24 NIV) If ever there was an example of that fact, it is this.