How do doctors determine the amount of time a terminally ill patient has left?
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Generally speaking, a doctor does not “give someone 6 months to live”. Setting a date can make a doctor liable to lawsuits. A doctor can say a person is in end stage cancer, which is spreading very quickly, and people with end stage typically do not make it a year.
When my mother was dying it was all euphemisms and vague wording, even when it was imminent. I asked the doctor straight out, and he told me that there are many factors and it would be a violation of his ethics to guess how long she had left. He could only tell people what typically happens.
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