Appropriate death: college students' preferences vs. actuarial projections.

Abstract

Appropriate death was defined as the kind of death a person might choose for himself/herself, if given a choice. Ss were 382 college students who stated their preferences for (a) age at time of death; (b) cause of death; (c) site of death; and (d) means of disposal of remains. Preferences were compared with national actuarial projections. The preferred average life expectancy for women was lower than the national average life expectancy (p less than .001). Natural causes and accidents were oversubscribed, while cardiovascular ailments and cancer were undersubscribed as causes of death. A non-institutional site for death was preferred by 91.3% of the Ss; 39% of all deaths now occur outside an institution. Traditional burial underground was the choice of just more than half the sample, but a slight trend toward less traditional means of disposal of remains was noted over the five semesters of the study.