right-to-die

[rahyt-tuh-dahy]

adjective

asserting or advocating the right to refuse extraordinary medical measures to prolong one's life when one is terminally ill or irreversibly comatose: right-to-die laws.

Origin of right-to-die

First recorded in 1975–80

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

right-to-die in Medicine

right-to-die

adj.

Advocating or expressing, as in a living will, a person's right to refuse extraordinary life-sustaining measures intended to prolong life artificially when the person is deemed by his or her physicians to be terminally or incurably ill.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.