terminal sedation

noun

The act of drugging a dying patient into a coma and withholding food and water until they die.

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Meanings

noun
  1. The act of drugging a dying patient into a coma and withholding food and water until they die.
    1 more example

    [The physician] Timothy Quill objects to the hypocrisy of outlawing physician-assisted suicide while permitting the practice of physicians drugging pain-wracked dying patients into comas and then removing hydration and nutrition so the patients die of starvation and dehydration, in what is called terminal sedation.

    2003, Ian Dowbiggin, A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America, Oxford University Press, page 175
Cite this entry
APA

terminal sedation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terminal%20sedation

MLA

“terminal sedation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terminal%20sedation. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “terminal sedation,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terminal%20sedation.

Source: terminal sedation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.