In the anticipation that the great majority of people die peacefully in any event, treatment decisions are sometimes made near the end of life that propel a dying person willy-nilly into a series of worsening miseries from which there is no extrication—surgery of questionable benefit and high complication rate, chemotherapy with severe side effects and uncertain response, and prolonged periods of intensive care beyond the point of futility. Better to know what dying is like, and better to make choices that are most likely to avert the worst of it. What cannot be averted can usually at least be
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