Why is it that I see “died by natural causes” so frequently in the news. What exactly is meant by that? Isn’t a heart attack, brain cancer or maybe even diabetes a natural way to kick the bucket? What’s up with “natural causes”? By the way I’d like to go doing 150+ mph in a Ferrari. 
Doesn’t “natural causes” exclude suicide, accident or homicide as cause of death? Those are “unnatural.” Understandable, sometimes, but unnatural.
Wonder which category spontaneous combustion (if it indeed exists) would fall into?
Getting hit by lightning strikes me (no pun intened) as a natural cause. But it still makes the news as “A golfer was killed by lightning etc,etc…”
From somewhere out on the 'net:
Of course, your own death wish (“By the way I’d like to go doing 150+ mph in a Ferrari.”) spurs this memory: [old joke] I want to go peacefully, in my sleep, like my grandfather - not screaming and yelling like his passengers.[/old joke]
and not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car were! 
From The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Third Edition, pg 1204:
I beleive the phrase “died of natural causes” fits definition 3 more easily than 2. I fell this mainly because, ordinarily, “died of natural causes” would fit more easily as meaning “died from a ruptured blood vessel in the stomach” than “killed by rattlesnake bite.”
The term “natural cause” has a different meaning depending on the context.
According to the coronor, a “natural cause” includes any cause of death other than murder, suicide or accident.
In ordinary language “natural causes” usually refer to causes of death consequent to old-age (heart failure, cancer, stroke, etc.). Each publication has its own guidelines for writing obituaries. In many cases the family may write their own. I would imagine that these are not very rigorously edited for content.
You can also get authentic Los Angeles Coroner Merchandise.
The following is just a joke. (satchmo dons his asbestos suit.)
Morgue Attendant: How should we list the ‘cause of death?’
Next of kin: Natural Causes.
Morgue Attendant: What? He was stabbed, strangled, burned up, and shot 4 times in the chest, and twice in the head!
You want to call that ‘Natural Causes’?
Next of kin: Well, if he hadn’t died from all that, it really wouldn’t be natural, now would it?