redemption through pain

There is a gringo in the Mexican village I live in who is dying of bone cancer. His screams can be heard all around the neighborhood. He begs his wife and friends to kill him but they won't. I understand that there's no hospice there but why doesn't his family take him to the hospital in the big city to get end-of-life care? Why don't they go back to the U.S.? Certainly they have Medicare. I think he might've been a crook so maybe he's afraid he'll get thrown in prison in the U.S. Hell, a prison hospital would be better than what he's going through now.

Contrast that with the Landlord. If he experienced pain in the end it was very mild. The hospice nurses were angels.

Enter the hostile Catholic takeover of the local hospital. Supposedly one of their beliefs is "redemption through pain." That's their theory of end-of-life care. I have a hard time believing that in this day and age religion would stand in the way of a pain-free end. I've gone on their website and can't find a reference to that redemption crap but I'll make a point to ask one of the hospice nurses who, when she isn't making people's last days on earth peaceful, can be found picketing the hospital.