Sentence:  Kwitny's account of the medical gridlock that has paralyzed Washington during the Bush and Reagan Administrations provides a bleak picture of the indecisiveness and passivity of federal officials, whom many gay activists have described as the bureaucratic instruments of nothing less than a Republican <WSD>thanatocracy</WSD>. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The enactment of policies held to lead, directly or indirectly, to death or an increased risk of death.