assisted suicide

noun

plural assisted suicides

: the act of suicide carried out 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

Now 77, Nitschke first explored the idea of delegating assisted suicide to machines in the 1990s. —Morgan Meaker, WIRED, 15 Oct. 2024

There are unresolved controversies: Should assisted suicide be legal as Michigan's Dr. Jack Kevorkian advocated and carried out? —Jamie L. Lareau, Detroit Free Press, 28 June 2024

From the growth of the labor movement to high-profile sports scandals to assisted suicides and shocking true crime, news stories from Detroit have written themselves into recent American history. —Jamie L. Lareau, Detroit Free Press, 28 June 2024

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

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