Ordinary measures are those that are based on medication or treatment which is directly available and can be applied without incurring severe pain, costs or other inconveniences, but which give the patient in question justified hope for a commensurate improvement in his health.

Extraordinary measures are those that are based on medication or treatment which cannot be applied without incurring severe pain, costs or other inconveniences. Their application, however, would not give the patient any justified hope for a commensurate improvement in his health.

If assessed from an ethical point of view, it is possible to distinguish between on the one hand life-prolonging measures the application of which is morally obligatory (ordinary measures) - as they are likely to help the patient - and on the other hand those measures which can be applied optionally (extraordinary measures) as the benefit to the patient is not immediately obvious or subject to considerable debate. These limits were highlighted already in 1957 by Pope Pius XII, who pointed out that life, health and earthly actions are allocated, and thus subordinate, to spiritual purposes. Death is seen as an integral element of life, since according to Christian beliefs death is not the end, but the transition to new life.