Leave the Exit to God

The lead advocate for an assisted suicide bill in the United Kingdom tabled her bill after coming face-to-face with reality.  A key element was diagnosing the time a patient has left, say six or twelve months.  Senior professors of palliative care uniformly said you can’t predict how long a patient had to live.  Professor Katherine Sleeman said “It is not possible to accurately determine.  This is an arbitrary line in the sand.  It’s not a firm foundation.”  Baroness Finlay said, “I have known people who live well and actively for years after they were thought to have no more than a few weeks to live.”  One study showed those who predicted such timelines were wrong over half of the time.  Let’s give patients the care they need and leave the exit to God.