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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 stated rationale for cryonics is that people who are considered dead by current legal or medical definitions, may not necessarily be dead according to the more stringent 'information-theoretic' definition of death. [47] [88] Some scientific literature is claimed to support the feasibility of cryonics. [89]
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 ]
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.
Differences in operational definitions of death have obvious medicolegal implications (in medical jurisprudence and medical law). Traditionally, both the legal and medical communities determined death through the permanent end of certain bodily functions in clinical death, especially respiration and heartbeat.
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]
Thanatology is the scientific study of death and the losses brought about as a result. It investigates the mechanisms and forensic aspects of death, such as bodily changes that accompany death and the postmortem period, as well as wider psychological and social aspects related to death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a ...
Clinical death is the medical term for cessation of blood circulation and breathing, the two criteria necessary to sustain the lives of human beings and of many other organisms. [1] It occurs when the heart stops beating in a regular rhythm, a condition called cardiac arrest .