. >> narrator: norman smellie has been in the hospital for two months, suffering from life-threateningomplications of his transplant. >> tell me what's happening. are you having pain in your belly? >> yeah. scared. >> scared. >> you're scared of what? what are you scared of? >> ( mumbles indistinctly ) >> oh. i don't want to do it if you're scared. >> norm, we don't have to do it. there's nothing wrong with the catheter. it's working. it's not infected. >> narrator: although he's always told dr. osman that he wants everything done to stay alive, he's now starting to refuse treatments, and she needs to know if he's changed his mind. >> let me ask you something. rita said that you'd been thinking a little bit about, if you ever needed a vent, what would you do or what you would want us to do. and have you thought about that more, and do you want to tell me something about that? hmm? >> if something should happen and you would have trouble breathing, do you want to be put on a respirator to help you breathe? you do? is that a yes? >> yeah. >> okay, all right. >> that's what you always did

one case they profiled was that of norman smellie. he had spent two months in the hospital and had suffered liver failure after a bone marrow transplant. in this excerpt, smellie's doctors and family grapple with his grim prognosis. >> nobody wants to die. nobody wants to die. and at the same time nobody wants to die badly. and that is my job. my job is to try to prevent people from dying if there's a possible way to do it. that will preserve a quality of life that's acceptable to them. but if they can't go on to try to make the death a good death. >> were you here during the night? okay. good morning, norman. we're going on just listen to your chest and do a few other things on the exam. we'll try very hard not to hurt in any way. can you just open your eyes up a little bit for me and look all the way up? >> it's been two days since norman smellie was brought to the i.c.u.from the bone marrow transplant unit. he has continued to get worse. >> don't push too hard because you've got pain in the side. >> so dr. nelson wants to meet with