48 hours to live..

Have you ever been in a consultation with a doctor and he tells you that your loved one has only 48 hours to live? Or have you been told by a cancer specialist that you would only have another 6 months of life left in you? How do the doctors know? Do they keep a life-o-meter that they can be almost exact in predicting the duration of life left of a person in their care? Are all these evidence- based or evidence-free medicine? Is it helpful for the patients and relatives when these proclamations are made? Perhaps, it may spur them into making those decisions that they have always procrastinate on, e.g. in making a will, or making amends with their estranged ones? Or worse, could these be the beginning of a self-fulfilling prophecy? And heaven forbids....could the doctors be suffering from their schizophrenic god-like delusions again..????!!

The Casual Philosopher ponders on...