I'm a junior doctor working in the NHS, and we regularly have conversations like this with other doctors, nurses, EMTs and associated staff. Often the reason there is no resuscitation order on a patient is that no one had the courage to broach the subject with the patient or family. The previous person has said: "Don't play God unless you have to, just follow the protocol" and I couldn't agree more. When I am on the cardiac arrest team (1x/week) in my hospital, if an arrest call goes off on a person without a clear "no attempted CPR order" even when I know it is likely to be pointless, I will give it 2 cycles of the Advanced Life Support protocol before having to play God (People who pull through, pull through quickly. Once I was at an arrest for 1 hour before the person leading decided that it was pointless). I think it is vital that there is a public demystification of death.