Finding out the cause of death

pimento

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Well surely there's only one cause of death, and that's 'organ failure'? It's what prompted that organ failure which is more variable.

My nan used to say (when asked what someone had died of) 'lack of breath'..

cannyshopper_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I was 17 a girl died, found dead in bed at home. Everybody at the time said it was suicide, after her bf finished with her..... roll on nearly 40 years and googling randomly I discovered her family tree online. Written by a family member. He said natural causes.

That's a bit annoying. But, he might've been told a different story .... or he might be re-writing history while her parents are still alive (and didn't want that information out in the public domain for anybody to read).

I'd love to know the truth .... but not £10 interested

depends how much effort you want to make.... there would probably have been an inquest, and 40 years ago its highly likely that this would have been reported in the local paper. If its your local area, a trip to your main library should give you an answer in an hour or so.


Any family has secrets they might prefer weren't in the public domain.. but the dead don't have any rights under the Data Protection Act and the truth will come out sooner or later if someone wants to look for it.

TBagpuss

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I was 17 a girl died, found dead in bed at home. Everybody at the time said it was suicide, after her bf finished with her..... roll on nearly 40 years and googling randomly I discovered her family tree online. Written by a family member. He said natural causes.

That's a bit annoying. But, he might've been told a different story .... or he might be re-writing history while her parents are still alive (and didn't want that information out in the public domain for anybody to read).

I'd love to know the truth .... but not £10 interested

Its also possible, of course, that 'everybody' at the time was wrong, and that she did die of natural causes but that given her age, people jumped to conclusions and gossiped about her.

And given the stigma around suicide, probably greater 40 years ago than now, it is also quite likely that if she did take her own life, that this was kept as quiet as possible

Mojisola

TBagpuss wrote: »

Its also possible, of course, that 'everybody' at the time was wrong, and that she did die of natural causes but that given her age, people jumped to conclusions and gossiped about her.

And given the stigma around suicide, probably greater 40 years ago than now, it is also quite likely that if she did take her own life, that this was kept as quiet as possible

Suicide was still a crime until 1961 in the UK and the stigma lasted well after it was decriminalised. Unless the means of death was very clearly suicide, the benefit of the doubt was often given to spare the family the extra stress.

slowcoachme

I believe that "Old Age" is not acceptable on a death certificate these days.
Since Shipman there have been a lot of changes, he was able to murder tens, maybe hundreds of people putting Old Age as cause of death and by working as sole Dr in his own practice.

G6JNS

slowcoachme wrote: »

I believe that "Old Age" is not acceptable on a death certificate these days.
Since Shipman there have been a lot of changes, he was able to murder tens, maybe hundreds of people putting Old Age as cause of death and by working as sole Dr in his own practice.

This tells you the rules unless anyone knows of a later set. Old age is acceptable in certain circumstances.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cause+of+death+registration+rules&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=hdrIVf-oMsOna53MlqgF

candlelight_2013

Old age is acceptable, as Tony has explained, for anyone over the age of 80 and who, more than likely, has underlying medical issues.

If it was a sudden death, and a doctor had not been in medical attendance, then the death would have to be reported to the Coroner, and it would be up to him/her to decide how to proceed.

Candlelightx