Description: A Record of Cancer Patients' Final Moments by an Oncologist with 18 Years of Experience at Seoul National University Hospital "What Makes the Remaining Life Meaningful?" As of 2019, the number of cancer deaths reached 78,863, an increase of nearly 10,000 compared to 2018, and the place where Koreans die shifted dramatically from 25.2 percent in hospitals in 1996 to 77.1 percent in 2019. The number of "life-sustaining treatment plans"—documents expressing the intent not to receive or to discontinue life-sustaining treatment—increased by more than 20,000 cases in 2019 compared to 2017. (Reference: Sisa IN, "The Future of Death") These facts tell us that hospitals are where most cancer patients die, and that people's attitudes toward death are changing. Indeed, the author, an oncologist with 18 years of experience at Seoul National University Hospital, states in this book: "Of the 280,000 people who died in South Korea in 2016, 210,000 died in hospitals, and 90 percent of terminal cancer patients meet their end in a hospital." As an oncologist, the author has witnessed the choices and time spent by countless cancer patients and their families, learning much about life and death. In that sense, this book is a kind of memoir—recording what the author learned and felt as both a doctor and a human being about the meaning of life, and about the final choices that cannot be judged by moral standards of right and wrong, written so as not to forget the patients. "The choices made by the patients I have met, the way they spent their time, every word and action—these have served as both cautionary and inspiring lessons to me. The patients I met, through their life and death, told me, still living, many stories. Finding the meaning within them felt like solving homework assigned by life itself. They truly were my teachers. (...) I wanted to say that we can reflect on ourselves through the images of those who have passed away, that their deaths are not erased but remembered by someone, and further, that someone's death can become life for another." (pp. 6-8) Reflecting on the Choices of Patients and Families Facing Death, and Our Attitudes Toward Life and Death All the patients mentioned in A Certain Death Spoke to Life are cancer patients, but after their diagnosis, each makes their own choices and heads toward the final destination in their own way. Some leave behind not reconciliation with estranged family over money, but a will demanding "Pay back the $200,000 I lent you." Others, right before death, fail to realize the meaning of life and simply wish for ten more years. One elderly patient in his seventies tries things he never had the chance to do before, coming to appreciate the preciousness of everyday life, while another elderly patient quietly arranges to donate his brain after death, without even telling his doctor. Everyone hears something like "You have about this much time left" regarding their life expectancy, but how they fill that remaining time varies greatly. The attitudes patients show toward their remaining life and impending death raise questions about our own attitudes toward life and death. On this, the author writes: "Everyone is born carrying the question, 'How meaningfully will I live out the life given to me?' It is a kind of homework, and we are all solving our own version of it in our own way. Of course, whether we solve this homework of life or not, and however we solve it, in the end, at the moment of death, we are the ones who must accept the result. Learning one's life expectancy is heartbreaking, but seen a little differently, it might be a special bonus. Usually, people live and die without knowing how much longer they have. Of course, no one will blame you for not finishing this homework, but it seems a shame to leave it entirely blank." (pp. 62-63) Also, patients are not alone on their journey toward the final destination—their families are with them. There is a wife who never gave up hope, traveling between Seoul and Busan while her husband battled cancer of unknown primary origin until his recovery. There is a daughter who, despite cursing her own blood ties, could not turn away from her abusive father and ultimately took responsibility for his final days. There is a son who shuttles between hospitals and work while caring for his divorced parents, both of whom are fighting cancer.