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In law, medicine, and statistics, cause of death is an official determination of the conditions resulting in a human's death, which may be recorded on a death certificate. A cause of death is determined by a medical examiner. In rare cases, an autopsy needs to be performed by a pathologist.
The Uniform Determination of Death Act has been enacted in 37 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Jurisdiction with enactment The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) is a model state law that was approved for the United States in 1981 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, in cooperation with the American Medical Association, the ...
Most legal determinations of death in the developed world are made by medical professionals who pronounce death when specific criteria are met. [4] Two categories of legal death are death determined by irreversible cessation of heartbeat (cardiopulmonary death), and death determined by irreversible cessation of functions of the brain (brain death).
When investigating a death, forensic pathologists: perform autopsies when required; may be appointed as coroners to investigate cases of suspicious death; determine the cause of death and all other factors that relate to the body directly; may attend crime scenes; frequently testify in court. [4]
Since the 1960s, laws governing the determination of death have been implemented in all countries that have active organ transplantation programs. The first European country to adopt brain death as a legal definition (or indicator) of death was Finland in 1971, while in the United States, the state of Kansas had enacted a similar law earlier. [9]
An unnatural cause of death results from an external cause, typically including homicides, suicides, accidents, medical errors, alcohol intoxications and drug overdoses. [6] [7] Jurisdictions differ in how they categorize and report unnatural deaths, including level of detail and whether they are considered a single category with subcategories, or separate top-level categories.
The definition of legal death, and its formal documentation in a death certificate, vary according to the jurisdiction. The certification applies to somatic death , corresponding to death of the person, which has varying definitions but most commonly describes a lack of vital signs and brain function. [ 9 ]
Today, where a definition of the moment of death is required, doctors and coroners usually turn to "brain death" or "biological death" to define a person as being dead; [27] people are considered dead when the electrical activity in their brain ceases. [28] It is presumed that an end of electrical activity indicates the end of consciousness. [29]