death panel

English

Wikisource

Etymology

First used in a 2009 Facebook note by U.S. politician Sarah Palin: "... my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care."

Noun

death panel (plural death panels)

  1. (US, originally in right-wing discourse, otherwise humorous) A fictitious government committee which is responsible for choosing which of various patients will receive healthcare, and which withholds life-saving treatment from some in order to reduce costs.[1]

See also
  • Palinism
  • Appendix:American Dialect Society most outrageous words of the year

References
  1. “'Tweet' 2009 Word of the Year, 'Google' Word of the Decade, as voted by American Dialect Society”, in (Please provide the title of the work)‎, American Dialect Society, January 8, 2010, retrieved October 8, 2010
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.