Dr. Andrea Mulligan:

It would come down to how the directive was drafted. As a matter of law, I think you could draft it so that you want pain relief but nothing else. The corollary of this is also that you will have to find medical practitioners to co-operate with that.

Medical practitioners have a well-established entitlement not to provide treatment if it is not warranted in their clinical judgment. That is another side to it. While I think it is a matter of law - and it would be lawful to have that scenario - I do not know of examples of medical practitioners who would be willing to support that.