# Death by Natural causes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2000, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406 "2000-06-05T02:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Freejack00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Freejack00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejack00)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/1 "2000-06-05T02:26:51Z")
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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/2 "2000-06-05T02:42:48Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![madd1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@madd1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madd1)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/3 "2000-06-05T02:52:52Z")
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…” ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/4 "2000-06-05T02:59:33Z")
From somewhere out on the 'net: > [@](#): > > According to the _Handbook for Death Euphemisms_, p. 861, Section (2) paragraph © “death by zombie dismemberment may still be referred to as ‘death from natural causes’ as long as the zombie began as, or arose from, some carbon-based life form.” Tactful obituary writers will also be relieved that subsection (h) of said same section permits the phrase “died peacefully in his sleep” to be applied to the victim of a carbombing provided that no eyewitness account positively establishes that the victim was awake when starting the car. > > I hope I have been of some help. > > A. H. Habermass > Bereavement Counselor 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] ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/5 "2000-06-05T04:20:02Z")
and not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car were! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wood\_Thrush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b38774/32.png) [@Wood\_Thrush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Thrush)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/6 "2000-06-05T05:04:55Z")
From _The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Third Edition_, pg 1204: > [@](#): > > **natural** … **2.** Of, related to, or concerning nature: _a natural environment_. **3.** Conforming to the usual or ordinary course of nature: _a natural death_. 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.” ---
**Author:** ![Feynman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Feynman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynman)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/7 "2000-06-05T06:00:50Z")
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. > [@](#): > > The Registrar must also report to the coroner all deaths the cause of which appear to be unknown; deaths apparently due to violence, neglect, abortion or occurring in suspicious circumstances; deaths arising during an operation or following an anaesthetic; or deaths due to an industrial disease or industrial poisoning. > > [Review into Death Certification (UK)](http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ccpd/bkgrnd00.htm) 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](http://www.vamp.org/Gothic/Text/lacoroner.html). ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2000, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-by-natural-causes/21406/8 "2000-06-05T14:48:24Z")
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?