Was Kendrix' Death Done in Poor Taste?

Hello, hello.

So earlier today I was on Instagram and saw of clip of when Kendrix died and became Casper the Friendly Ghost on Lost Galaxy.  And when I saw it, I had a thought that I never had before: Was killing Kendrix the right thing to do?

Now from a writing standpoint, killing Kendrix was brilliant.  Bringing in Karone as her replacement was brilliant (and that episode is my favorite episode in ALL of Power Rangers).  However, once you start thinking about the reason the writers killed Kendrix off in the first place, it gets weird.  Kendrix' actor, Valerie Vernon was diagnosed with cancer at that time and had to leave the show for health purposes.  Thankfully, she was able to kick cancer's ass, but she still had to leave the show.

So imagine being told that you have cancer.  Then telling your bosses that you have cancer and cannot continue working.  And then your bosses tell you they are going to kill you off on the show to explain why your character will be gone.  Now maybe the director/writers told Valerie that they were always going to bring her back at the end, I don't know.  But they still had this woman act out dying on the show and being a ghost.

She had cancer at the time guys.  Most likely, she was already thinking about her mortality and then you make her die and play a ghost.  If I were an actor diagnosed with cancer, I could not see myself acting out anything that had to do with my own death.  I'm diagnosed with cancer, I don't want to die, and now I'm being forced to pretend I'm dying on screen?  Good Lord...

Do you think that the writers were being insensitive to Valerie by killing off her character?  Prior to that moment, NO Power Ranger had ever died on the show.  There are plenty of ways they could have written the character of Kendrix off the show without resorting to death.  But the writers chose to have the Grim Reaper visit the pink ranger anyway.

I don't know how Valerie Vernon felt about it, and I certainly do not speak for her.  I have never seen any interviews with her, so I don't know if she's discussed this topic before.  This is just a thought that came in my head today that I never thought about before.

Well, whether it was insensitive or not, Kendrix' death made for some good television and the actor pulled through in the end, so... yay?