Licence to Kill (Concept) (Paperback)

License to kill has at least two meanings. It can be defined as: An official sanction by a government or government agency to a particular operative or employee to initiate the use of deadly force, presumably in furtherance of the government's aims or policies, or in carrying out the operative's assigned missions and presumably in an assassination or covert context rather than in an overtly military context. An executioner has a licence to terminate the life of the person being executed. Thus, executioner's licence to kill has a limited scope, as it is issued only for the sole occasion of the execution. In this sense, a license to kill is a form of legal immunity: killing is part of said individual's official duties, and thus they cannot be legally sanctioned for their acts, just as police are not liable for speeding tickets during car chases. It is also sometimes used when referring to assisted suicide, or discontinuance of life support, especially by editorialists, who may use the phrase, possibly pejoratively, in reference to government sanction of either action.