What is the theme in Deadline by Chris Crutcher?

Death is a very obvious theme in the novel Deadline. Right in the first few pages, the reader understands that Ben has a very short time to live, even though he is only a high school senior. He has a disease that is taking over his body, and he chooses to avoid drastic intervention. It seems that Ben is facing a harsh reality coping with death at such a young age, but the author makes a very clear point of having Ben accept death gracefully to a point where he has never even imagined himself doing anything other than dying young.