This same report could be written about similar situations hundreds of times every day in many, many different hospitals in many, many different countries.

The article is correct, forecasting death in an inexact science. In almost all hospitals that I know of, the decision to begin to withdraw treatment to patients deemed terminally ill is a decision by a panel of physicians from the hospital staff, but only with the agreement of the family (unless the patient had executed a Living Will). Even then, there are disagreements.

I had a situation that I was responsible for myself. I take care of an elderly woman whose doctor told me that she had less than six months to live because of a cancerous lung tumor. To make the end easier, I arranged for her admission to a hospice program. Guess what? She "graduated" from hospice and she's back in the nursing home general population--at age 97!

Then there's the case of Terri Schiavo. You remember that case, don't you? Congress even came back from their August recess to hold hearings. Her family couldn't agree; her doctors couldn't agree; and neither could Congress.