Dr. Miriam Colleran:

That is a really important question. It is important to note that prognostication is difficult. Some jurisdictions, like those the Senator is referring to, propose a prognostication that it is for persons who have a terminal illness with a prognosis of maybe six months. I am a front facing clinician. I see patients every day of the week. We cannot prognosticate like that. I might be seeing someone in outpatients who unfortunately has a terminal illness. We will call him John. I can estimate in terms of years, long months, short months, weeks, long weeks, short weeks and then we go day by day. We cannot put a number on it because it is not possible to do that. It is not actually possible to prognosticate to six months.