A life-and-death struggle.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

Should the governor be involved in life-and-death decisions?.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Mar 23, 2005] Reference

Up next, we're going to look at the life-and-death decisions.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Mar 31, 2005] Reference

BLITZER: It's not only important, it's a life-and-death matter.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Aug 23, 2005] Reference

Another twist and turn in the desperate life-and-death wrestle, and.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jack Haydon's Quest] Reference

You define every issue as a life-and-death struggle to save America.    From Wordnik.com.  [President Newt?] Reference

Admiral Van Tromp, who, in the mighty life-and-death struggle between.    From Wordnik.com.  [Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison Fifteen Years in Solitude] Reference

Des Moines made it a life-and-death issue ... for Des Moines, that is.    From Wordnik.com.  [American Beat: Give Pontification A Chance] Reference

She is, for one, surprisingly knowledgeable about life-and-death politics.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Woman Of Focus And Fortune] Reference

Presidential stakes are never small: they involve life-and-death decisions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Far From The Madding Crowd] Reference

Abolitionists entered the field and declared for a life-and-death struggle.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Abolitionists Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights] Reference

I don ` t really believe that these people are in life-and-death situations.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Mar 11, 2005] Reference

Also, incredible footage of a life-and-death struggle between man and shark.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Mar 12, 2009] Reference

Have any states made it easier for families to make life-and-death decisions?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Capital Ideas] Reference

For the first time ever, see men and women struggling over life-and-death decisions.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Aug 10, 2004] Reference

Who makes the best M.P. man, executing duty, say, in a critical life-and-death hazard?.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Luck of the Mounted A Tale of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police] Reference

Ask any one who has waited on a bayou-bank for a physician or a life-and-death message.    From Wordnik.com.  [Balcony Stories] Reference

But they're not life-and-death crises of the sort that the Iraqis are facing right now.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Jul 19, 2007] Reference

While we are never in a life-and-death scenario, we often feel that it's all or nothing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Adele Scheele: How to Negotiate For What You Want] Reference

The stone barriers were passed; Romans and Britons were mingled in a life-and-death struggle.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stories from English History] Reference

But it also doesn't inspire the same passions as the life-and-death struggles of the frontier.    From Wordnik.com.  [THE END OF A DREAM] Reference

Anybody that shows up to a hospital in a life-and-death situation does get emergency services.    From Wordnik.com.  [CNN Transcript Oct 5, 2007] Reference

His explanation was that he trusted the courts to sort through the life-and-death complexities.    From Wordnik.com.  [TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR] Reference

He wants nothing more than to have his partner by his side as he wages a life-and-death battle.    From Wordnik.com.  [Steve Ralls: Divided by Law: An American Takes On Immigration to Reunite with the Person He Loves] Reference

For an industry in a life-and-death struggle with its own customers, it was a rare piece of good news.    From Wordnik.com.  [Out Of Tune] Reference

"This is a life-and-death situation," says Yumi Jhang-Park of the Korean-American Grocers Association.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cube On Thin Ice] Reference

I remember Oct. 3, 1993, when Task Force Ranger was involved in the life-and-death struggle in Mogadishu.    From Wordnik.com.  ['Being Shot At Is No Fun'] Reference

Dealing with that crisis means more than the immediate life-and-death struggle with the insurgents in Iraq.    From Wordnik.com.  [Trail Mix: Military Politics] Reference

They can do without the life-and-death merger battles that color the corporate scene in Britain or America.    From Wordnik.com.  [No Thanks, Uncle Sam] Reference

It would be a hideous injustice if the agency came down once more on the wrong side of a life-and-death question.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Avastin Mugging] Reference

For better or worse, life-and-death medical decisions remain in the hands of doctors, patients and their families.    From Wordnik.com.  [Software For Hard Issues] Reference

But when that power involves the life-and-death decision of going to war, maybe you can get too a little too close for comfort.    From Wordnik.com.  [Diplomatic Diary: Friends Through Thick And Thin?] Reference

Meacham speaks of the dark side of power as blithely as one who has never exercised life-and-death authority over fellow humans.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Blessings and Curses of Power] Reference

The time saved by getting answers online can be critical when patients are faced with what can amount to life-and-death decisions.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Doctor Is On] Reference

In an era when our ancestors faced life-and-death decisions on a daily basis, anxiety and herd instincts helped ensure our survival.    From Wordnik.com.  [David Code: How We All Became So Anxious] Reference

The most important effect of the old system was that it brought life-and-death drama (only in the sports sense) to the short program.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scoring Without Scandal?] Reference