I have never seen a death certificate, but is this what it says when an elderly person dies on their own?
How old does one have to be for their death to be called “natural causes”?
I assume that a 30 year old dying of massive organ failure would be classified as some kind of case different and distinct from “natural causes”, whereas the same circumstance visited on a 90 year old would be considered “natural causes”. So where is the line, and is there some rule regarding this classification?
I believe they don’t actually list “natural causes” as the cause of death. It’s usually something more specific like “cardio-pulmonary arrest” (ie your heart stop beating and you stopped breathing).
Just an assumption but I’d think anything that isn’t caused by accident or homicide would be a “natural cause”. It means just that - a death from something natural. Cancer, other disease, stroke, all would be considered natural as opposed to, say, hitting a brick wall doing 90mph.
I saw my mother’s death certificate when she died a few weeks ago. She was in her mid 70’s, died at home sitting in a chair while watching TV. The listed cause of death was “cardiac arrest” - i.e. her heart stopped. Given her age, they don’t do any other investigating as to what made her heart stop - so that’s sort of a catchall for “cause of death unknown, but she certainly died when her heart stopped beating, so we’ll put that on the form.”
That is what I had understood: that generic “natural causes” has been pretty much dropped in most jurisdictions I know of, to be replaced by at least a rough description of what was the organic failure.
I would suppose the real thrust of the question would be at what age does what happened in the case of **muldoonthief[/b’]'s mum (may he have my sympathies) kick in – that someone just up and dying is not considered worthy of a ME investigation. Then it would vary by jurisdiction, there being specific rules in each (country/state/province) as to when is it enough that a competent professional declared death.
I have a copy of the Death Certificate of one of my ancestors who died at the age of 95 in the 1800’s. His cause of death was listed as “Infirmities of old age”. All the other Death Certificates I have seen for other family members and ancestors are more specific i.e. Cardiac arrest, suicide, cancer, etc. They are interesting documents because they often list other medical conditions and it is a good thing to know your family medical history.