Chapter 15 "Choosing a Time" Summary and Analysis

A major concern of many dying patients is the time and particular circumstances of their death. Most patients are unconcerned that they die at, for example, nighttime. Nevertheless, many are concerned about the circumstances at the time of their death. Since daily circumstances often change in predictable ways that correspond with the time of day, many patients focus their attention on particular portions of the day. The chapter is the second longest chapter in the text and provides an unusually high number of case studies—nine in all—which document patients' apparent ability to select the actual time of their death. The authors suggest that many patients, particularly those who are unusually lucid at the time of death, are apparently in control of their death to the extent that they can...