Predictions of Life Expectancy Can Be Wrong

Maryanne Clayton and son
Seattle Weekly

Persons "eligible" for assisted suicide based on a prediction of less than six months to live may in fact have years or decades to live. This is true because predictions of life expectancy are often wrong due to actual mistakes (the test results got switched), and because predicting life expectancy is not an exact science.[1]

Consider John Norton, who was diagnosed with ALS at age 18, which was then confirmed by the Mayo Clinic. He was told that he would get progressively worse (be paralyzed) and die in three to five years. Instead, the disease progression stopped on its own. In a 2012 affidavit, at age 74, he states:

If assisted suicide or euthanasia had been available to me in the 1950's, I would have missed the bulk of my life and my life yet to come.[2]

* * * 

[1] Jessica Firger, “12 Million Americans Misdiagnosed Each Year,” CBS NEWS, April 17, 2014 and Nina Shapiro, “Terminal Uncertainty:  "Washington’s new ‘Death With Dignity’ law allows doctors to help people commit suicide—once they’ve determined that the patient has only six months to live.  But what if they’re wrong?,” Seattle Weekly, 1/13/09.
[2] Affidavit of John Norton, 8/18/12.