ABSTRACT
The awareness of subsidiary features of terminality may be of different types than the openness about death itself. Once a patient has indicated his awareness of dying, the most important interactional consequence that is now responsible for his acts as a dying person. The patient's dawning suspicion or final awareness of such contingencies noticeably affects interaction in the open awareness context. Awareness of impending death gives the patient an opportunity to close his life in accordance with his own ideas about proper dying. One of the complicating features of the open awareness context is that negotiations instituted by the patient may catch staff members in crossfires of professional and human responsibilities, with consequent inescapable feelings of negligence. The instance noted earlier of the patient who begged the nurse to call his wife also illustrates how a nurse may be required to choose between satisfying a patient's request and following ordinary institutional and professional practice.
