Can Dying People Prolong Their Lives by Having Important Goals? What the Evidence Says
Let's not pressure dying persons to prolong their lives until everybody is ready for them to die. The science cited for their having such control is seriously flawed.
August 2023 Introduction
My 2011 “Black Swan” blog post on the Psychology Today website as the Skeptical Sleuth was the third blog post I ever wrote and was originally titled, Do Important Goals Prolong Life?
Compassionate people tell terminally ill patients “Hang in, there! Don’t you dare die before we get there to see you.” Most of the time, they succeed in communicating how much dying persons mean to friends and loved ones just when they might need reminders. If anyone gives the exchange any thought, they recognize that the statement is not to be interpreted as a literal demand. Everyday speech is nuanced and informal in that way. Lots of Americans will say “Gesundheit!” to a stranger with no recall of the medieval superstition that a soul could escape out of a sneezer’s mouth if God were not summoned to bless them.
Behavioral scientists might want to check the evidence whether patients have mind control over when they die. If they find compelling evidence, we could find ways of …