Medical procedures which are pointless because the patient is certain to die shortly. Giving large amounts of opiate drugs to a patient to relieve pain while at the same time recognizing that these will hasten death. A formal agreement between family, physicians, hospital management, etc, that life support systems to an incompetent person are better disconnected in the best interest of the patient. All parties agree not to bring lawsuits. Administering heavy doses of opiate drugs to completely sedate a person who is dying painfully.
Person dies whilst unconscious.
An order on the patient's medical chart advising health professionals that extraordinary measures should not be used to attempt to save this person's life. The deliberate slow response to a medical alert of heart or breathing stoppage which is designed to make resuscitation impossible. Legal in all U S states. A combination of the above two documents and phrased differently. Likely to be encountered in the states of Massachusetts and New York.