assisted suicide

noun

: suicide committed by someone with assistance from another person

especially : physician-assisted suicide

Examples of assisted suicide in a Sentence

a doctor who has been involved in several assisted suicides

an opponent of assisted suicide

Recent Examples on the Web

Disability advocates already must fight harder against a system that views their lives as worth less than others, and assisted suicide firmly places a target on their backs. —Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 21 May 2024

New Zealand legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2021 for terminally ill patients aged 18 and older. —Devika Rao, theweek, 8 May 2024

Others express moral opposition to assisted suicide and say there are no safeguards to protect vulnerable patients from coercion. —CBS News, 4 Jan. 2024

Ten states allow medically assisted suicide but before Vermont changed its law only one state - Oregon - allowed non-residents to do it, by not enforcing the residency requirement as part of a court settlement. —CBS News, 4 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1884, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

assisted suicide

noun

variants also assisted death

: the act of suicide carried out by someone with assistance from another person

Surveys also show assisted suicides are taking place covertly, often without a doctor's help.

—Mark O'Keefe, The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)

especially : physician-assisted suicide

Six of the 15 patients who chose assisted suicide in the act's first year had to ask more than one doctor before finding a physician who would write a lethal prescription.

—Barry Siegel, The Los Angeles Times

Legal Definition

assisted suicide

noun

: suicide committed by someone with assistance from another person

especially : physician-assisted suicide