The Audiovisual Summary

By March of 1995, Schwartz is in a wheelchair and knows he will never walk again. His body continues to weaken, but his mind is going a hundred miles an hour. He begins writing down little snippets about his philosophy on dying. He shares some of them with a friend, who forwards them to a reporter at the Boston Globe. The subsequent interview and article come to the attention of a producer at Nightline, and soon Ted Koppel himself arrives at Schwartz's home for an on-camera interview.

The interview begins unusually, with Schwartz interviewing Koppel before deciding if he'll agree to being interviewed himself. Instead of kowtowing to the famous journalist, Schwartz admits he's only seen Nightline twice, and his impression was that Koppel is a narcissist. The televised interview shows Schwartz explaining he's decided to die as he has lived, with...