First of all, if someone said that no heroic measures were to be done for a particular patient, they would mean that because the person is certain to die shortly, no medical procedures that are pointless should be done to or for that patient. The person could be said to have a terminal or irreversible illness.
Patients or their families can decide that they do not want attempts to relieve themselves or their family member to be made if that person has cardiac arrest or their breathing stops. The doctor will write an order called, "Do Not Resuscitate," also called a "DNR Order." This means that medical staff will not do "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR."
Many people including medical personnel have problems with dealing with just standing by and watching someone die without responding in some way to try to keep that person alive. At other times, when a patient had suffered for a long time or their pain was unable to be relieved, and there was no DNA order, the staff may have responded in a way to allow time to go by so the patient could not be resuscitated. This is usually referred to as a "Slow Code or blue code."
Many lay persons do not know or realize that it has been common practice for doctors to prescribe higher and higher doses of drugs that are given for pain to hasten death. The drugs are said to have a "double effect." An example of this would be giving a person who has severe pain from cancer large doses of morphine that relieves their pain but also depresses their respiration to the point that they slowly stop breathing and die.
Many people are uncomfortable thinking about death, so they hesitate to put their wishes in writing and make them legal as in a will. Everyone is afforded the right by law to have "informed consent" for medical treatments. This means that doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes must explain the benefits, risks, and any alternatives of medical procedures. Then the patient can give permission for the procedure to be done. This permission is their informed consent.
A patient can only give their informed consent if they are "competent" which means they are able to communicate with the doctor and that they understand the implications and possible consequences of the medical treatment in question. If the patient is not able to do this then they are "incompetent."
