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Probably most dying patients, even when suffering greatly, would choose to live as long as possible. That courage and grace should be protected and honored, and we should put every effort into treating their symptoms.

We can now diagnose diseases that haven't even manifested in the patient, and may not until the fifth decade of life - if at all.

The difference in the quality of medical care received by people with mental illness is one of the reasons why they live shorter lives than people without mental illness. Even in the best-resourced countries in the world, this life expectancy gap is as much as 20 years. In the developing countries of the world, this gap is even larger.

In health care today, we spend most of the dollars - in terms of treating disease - in the last two years of a person's life.

My patient population has a low recidivism rate, but if they haven't made up their minds that it is permanent, then of course, they will fail.

You know, 97 percent of the time, if you come into a hospital, everything goes well. But three percent of the time, we have major complications.

People who attend support groups who have been diagnosed with a life-challenging illness live on average twice as long after diagnosis as people who don't.

We're getting closer. I believe a 5-year-old with diabetes will live long enough to be cured.

The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80% of the total health care bill out there. There is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. The decision is not whether or not we will ration care. The decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.

In large part, thanks to widespread immunization, the number of young children dying each year has declined significantly, from approximately 14 million in 1979 to slightly less than eight million in 2010.