Death certificate

Eddie August Schneider's (1911-1940) death certificate, issued in New York.

The phrase death certificate can refer either to a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or, popularly, to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later entered in an official register of deaths.

## Contents

* 1 Nature of a certificate
* 2 Public documents
* 3 History
* 4 Specific jurisdictions
* 4.1 United States
* 4.2 United Kingdom
* 4.2.1 England and Wales
* 4.2.2 Northern Ireland
* 4.2.3 Scotland
* 4.3 United Kingdom's Crown dependencies and British Overseas Territories
* 5 Stillbirths
* 5.1 England and Wales
* 5.2 Scotland
* 5.3 United States
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## Nature of a certificate

Each governmental jurisdiction prescribes the form of the document for use in its preview and the procedures necessary to legally produce it. One purpose of the certificate is to review the cause of death to determine if foul-play occurred as it can rule out an accidental death or a murder going by the findings and ruling of the medical examiner. It may also be required in order to arrange a burial or cremation to provide prima facie evidence of the fact of death, which can be used to prove a person's will or to claim on a person's life insurance. Lastly, death certificates are used in public health to compile data on leading causes of death among other statistics (See: Descriptive statistics)

Before issuing a death certificate, the authorities usually require a certificate from a physician or coroner to validate the cause of death and the identity of the deceased. In cases where it is not completely clear that a person is dead (usually because their body is being sustained by life support), a neurologist is often called in to verify brain death and to fill out the appropriate documentation. The failure of a physician to immediately submit the required form to the government (to trigger issuance of the death certificate) is often both a crime and cause for loss of one's license to practice. This is because of past scandals in which dead people continued to receive public benefits or voted in elections.[1] Death certificates may also be issued pursuant to a court order or an executive order in the case of individuals who have been declared dead in absentia. Missing persons and victims of mass disasters (such as the sinking of the RMS Lusitania) may be issued death certificates in one of these manners.

In some jurisdictions, a police officer or a paramedic may be allowed to sign a death certificate under specific circumstances. This is usually when the cause of death seems obvious and no foul play is suspected, such as in extreme old age. In such cases, an autopsy is rarely performed. This varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; in some areas police officers may sign death certificates for victims of SIDS,[citation needed] but in others all deaths of individuals under 18 must be certified by a physician. Accident deaths where there is no chance of survival (decapitations, for instance) may be certified by police or paramedics, but autopsies are still commonly performed if there is any chance that alcohol or other drugs played a role in the accident.

A full explanation of the cause of death includes four items:

* the immediate cause of death, such as the heart stopping,
* the intermediate causes, which triggered the immediate cause, such as a myocardial infarction,
* the underlying causes, which triggered the chain of events leading to death, such as atherosclerosis, and
* any other diseases and disorders the person had at the time of death, even though they did not directly cause the death.[2]

## Public documents

In most of the United States , death certificates are considered public domain documents and can therefore be obtained for any individual regardless of the requester's relationship to the deceased. Other jurisdictions take a different view, and restrict the issue of certificates. For example, in the State of New York, death certificates are only obtainable by close relatives, including the spouse, parent, child or sibling of the deceased, and other persons who have a documented lawful right or claim, documented medical need, or a New York State Court Order.[3]

## History

In Europe and North America, death records were kept by the local churches, along with baptism and marriage records.[2] In what would become the United States, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first to have the secular courts keep these records, in 1639.[2] By the end of the 19th century, European countries were pursuing centralized systems for recording deaths.[2]

In the United States, a standard model death certificate was developed around 1910.[2] This promoted uniformity and consistency in record keeping.

## Specific jurisdictions

### United States

Illinois certificate of death issued after the execution of John Wayne Gacy.

In the United States, certificates issued to the general public for deaths after 1990 may in some states be redacted to erase the specific cause of death (in cases where death was from natural causes) to comply with HIV confidentiality rules. In New York State, for instance, the cause of death on a general death certificate is only specified if death was accidental, homicide, suicide, or declared in absentia; all other deaths are only referred to as natural. All states have provisions, however, whereby immediate family members, law enforcement agencies, and governmental authorities (such as occupational health and safety groups) are able to obtain death certificates containing the full cause of death, even in cases of natural death.

In some cases, such as the death of a minor or infant, certificates may be kept confidential from the public as requested by legal guardian and therefore cannot be obtained by the general public but rather through immediate family members.

### United Kingdom

Registration in the UK is organised separately in the constituent jurisdictions. A register of deaths contains the information supplied by an informant, nowadays usually containing and repeating the information given in a Medical Certificate of Death (MCOD) supplied by the medical practitioner who certifies that life is extinct, this being the real "death certificate" distinct from the "registration of a death" in a register. Further information might be added after the first registration if the death was the subject of an inquest (Northern Ireland or England and Wales) or a Fatal Accident Inquiry (Scotland); this can result in a later copy of a death registration giving more details of the cause of death or the associated circumstances.

#### England and Wales

In England and Wales, compulsory national registration of deaths began in 1837. Originally the death registration listed when and where a person died, their name and surname, the parent or parents (if the deceased was a child), sex, age, occupation, cause of death, the description and residence of the informant, when the death was registered and the registrar's signature. Further details have since been recorded including the deceased's date and place of birth, maiden surnames and other former surnames of women who have been divorced.

Beginning in 1879, a doctor's certificate was necessary for the issuance of a death certificate (prior to that, no cause of death needed to be given).

#### Northern Ireland

The form of indexing and the layout of register pages generally follows that of England and Wales.

#### Scotland

National registration began in 1855; registrations are rather more detailed[4] than in England and Wales. In the first year of registration many more details than in later years were recorded including the children of the deceased with their ages, the deceased's birthplace and how long they were resident in the district where they died. The burial place was recorded from 1855 to 1860. Standard details have until now included the deceased's name, age, marital status, spouse(s) (if any), details of both parents, cause of death and the informant's description. Current (2011) registrations show the date of birth. The prescribed forms are part of secondary legislation and those for recent years can thus be seen online in the Statute Law Database.

Unlike England and Wales, information is not limited to being supplied in the form of certified copies; original register pages (or filmed images) can be viewed in person at local register offices or at the General Register Office in Edinburgh, online (fees apply) on the Scotlands People website or in microfilms (1855-1875, 1881, 1891) available at family history centres operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

### United Kingdom's Crown dependencies and British Overseas Territories

These jurisdictions do not form part of the United Kingdom and each has its own registration system. Their older records tend to follow the layout used in England and Wales.

## Stillbirths

### England and Wales

Stillbirths (beyond 24 weeks gestation) have been registered since 1927 in a register that is closed from public access. A single stillbirth registration takes the place of both birth and death registration for the stillborn infant. Prior to 1960 such certificates gave no cause of death.

Stillbirth certificates can only be ordered by the mother or father of the deceased contacting the General Register Office by phone or letter. In the event of the parents both having died, an adult sibling can order the certificate if they can provide the dates of death for both parents.

### Scotland

Registration of still-births commenced in 1939. The registers are not open to public view and extracts are only issued "in exceptional circumstances".[5]

### United States

A 2007 article in People magazine revealed that in the case of a stillbirth it is not standard practice to issue both a birth certificate and a death certificate. Most states instead issue a "certificate of birth resulting in stillbirth".[6]

## See also

* Birth certificate
* Ghosting (identity theft)
* Marriage licence
* Marriage certificate
* Mortality Medical Data System (MMDS)

## References

1. ↑ "Dead People Voting Throughout Florida". WFTV Orlando (VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla.). 30 Oct 2008. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110523090407/http://www.wftv.com/news/17848541/detail.html. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Altman, Lawrence K. (1 July 2013). "Making the Right Call, Even in Death". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/health/making-the-right-call-even-in-death.html. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
3. ↑ "Death Certificates". New York State Department of Health. http://www.health.ny.gov/vital_records/death.htm.
4. ↑ "Items Included in the Main Registers". General Register Office for Scotland. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120608112918/http://gro-scotland.gov.uk/regscot/items-included-in-the-registers.html. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
5. ↑ General Register Office Leaflet S1 (April 2011)
6. ↑ "Welcome to MISSing Angels Bill". http://www.missingangelsbill.org. Retrieved 22 March 2018.

## External links

* Mortality Data from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System - See Methods - Data collection - for copies of death certificates and how to fill them.
* Magrane BP, Gilliland MGF, and King DE. Certification of Death by Family Physicians. American Family Physician 1997 Oct 1;56(5):1433-8. PMID 9337765
* Swain GR, Ward GK, Hartlaub PP. Death certificates: Let's get it right. American Family Physician February 15, 2005 PMID 15742904
* Find Free Death Records gives details on how to apply for death records in each state.
* Online Death Indexes and Records lists some online death certificate indexes
* Where to Write for Vital Records (including Death Certificates) from the National Center for Health Statistics

* v
* t
* e

Death

In medicine|

Cell death
Necrosis

Avascular necrosis
Coagulative necrosis
Liquefactive necrosis
Gangrenous necrosis
Caseous necrosis
Fat necrosis
Fibrinoid necrosis
Temporal lobe necrosis
Programmed cell death

AICD
Anoikis
Apoptosis
Autophagy
Intrinsic apoptosis
Necroptosis
Paraptosis
Parthanatos
Phenoptosis
Pseudoapoptosis
Pyroptosis
Autolysis
Autoschizis
Eschar
Immunogenic cell death
Ischemic cell death
Pyknosis
Karyorrhexis
Karyolysis
Mitotic catastrophe
Suicide gene

* Abortion
* Accidental death
* Autopsy
* Brain death
* Brainstem death
* Clinical death
* DOA
* Death by natural causes
* Death rattle
* Dysthanasia
* End-of-life care
* Euthanasia
* Lazarus sign
* Lazarus syndrome
* Medical definition of death
* Organ donation
* Terminal illness
* Unnatural death

Lists|

* Causes of death by rate
* Expressions related to death
* Natural disasters
* People by cause of death
* Premature obituaries
* Preventable causes of death
* Notable deaths by year
* Unusual deaths
* TV actors who died during production

Mortality|

* Birthday effect
* Child mortality
* Gompertz–Makeham law of mortality
* Holiday effect
* Immortality
* Biological
* Digital
* Infant mortality
* Karōshi
* Maternal death
* Maternal mortality in fiction
* Memento mori
* Micromort
* Mortality displacement
* Mortality rate
* RAMR
* Mortality salience
* Perinatal mortality

After death|

| Body|

Stages
Pallor mortis
Algor mortis
Rigor mortis
Livor mortis
Putrefaction
Decomposition
Skeletonization
Fossilization

Preservation
Cryopreservation

Cryonics
Neuropreservation
Embalming
Maceration
Mummification
Plastination
Prosection
Taxidermy

Disposal
Burial

Bed burial
Burial at sea
Chariot burial
Jar burial
Natural burial
Premature burial
Secondary burial
Ship burial
Sky burial
Space burial
Cannibalism
Cremation
Dismemberment
Excarnation
Promession
Resomation

Beating heart cadaver
Body donation
Cadaveric spasm
Coffin birth
Death erection
Dissection
Gibbeting
Postmortem caloricity
Post-mortem interval

|

Other aspects|

Afterlife
Cemetery
Consciousness
Customs
Death mask
Eternal oblivion
Examination
Funeral
Grief
Intermediate state
Internet
Mourning
Obituary
Resurrection
Taboo on the dead
Vigil

Paranormal|

* Ghosts
* Near-death experience
* Near-death studies
* Necromancy
* Out-of-body experience
* Reincarnation research
* Séance

Legal|

* Abortion law
* Administration
* Capital punishment
* Cause of death
* Civil death
* Coroner
* Death-qualified jury
* Death certificate
* Declared death in absentia
* Death row
* Dying declaration
* Faked death
* Inquest
* Legal death
* Murder
* Necropolitics
* Prohibition of death
* Right to die
* Suspicious death
* Trust law
* Will

Fields|

* Forensic pathology
* Funeral director
* Mortuary science
* Necrobiology
* Post-mortem chemistry
* Post-mortem photography
* Taphonomy
* Biostratinomy
* Thanatology

Other|

* Apparent death
* Dark tourism
* Darwin Awards
* Dead pool
* Death and culture
* Death anniversary
* Death anxiety
* Death deity
* Personification of death
* Dying-and-rising god
* Psychopomp
* Death camp
* Death drive
* Death education
* Death from laughter
* Death hoax
* Death knell
* Death march
* Death messenger
* Death notification
* Death panel
* Death poem
* Death pose
* Death-positive movement
* Death squad
* Death threat
* Death trajectory
* Dignified death
* Extinction
* Fan death
* Festival of the Dead
* Fascination with death
* Hierarchy of death
* Homicide
* Last rites
* Martyr
* Megadeath
* Museum of Death
* Necronym
* Necrophilia
* Necrophobia
* The Order of the Good Death
* Predation
* Sacrifice
* human
* animal
* Social death
* Spiritual death
* Suicide
* Assisted suicide
* Thanatosensitivity
* Undead
* Voodoo death

* Category
* Outline

0.00

(0 votes)

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Social:Death_certificate&oldid=1010423"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template