noun
letting someone die without helping
Archaic term for deliberately not helping someone in mortal danger, akin to 'abandonment to death'. Compare 見殺し (みごろし), which is more common in modern Japanese.
See also: 見殺し
古文書には、捨て殺しは重い罪と記されている。
In old documents, letting someone die without helping is recorded as a serious crime.
見殺し is the modern, common term for 'letting someone die by inaction'. 捨て殺し is archaic and carries a nuance of active abandonment rather than mere inaction.
Compound of 捨て (すて, 'throwing away') + 殺し (ごろし, 'killing'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the term likely originated in older legal or moral contexts.