Type of death
The manner of death of a human being can, of course, not be natural or unexplained.
definition
The corresponding definitions of the terms "natural death" and "non-natural death" are presented differently in legal and medical literature, but a distinction is made between:
- is natural (mostly defined as death from an internal - physical - cause, e.g. as a result of illnesses, deformities or weakness of life, without harmful external influences in the development of the disease; usually found in deaths in hospital, provided that no medical error or third-party fault is assumed got to),
- not natural (also long-ago external influence / possibly omission or external personal influence , e.g. suicide , or late death after decades of being bedridden due to an accident) and
- unexplained.
It is often difficult to classify deaths from psychiatric illnesses such as depression , mania or borderline personality disorder , since without the underlying psychiatric illness (actually mostly an internal cause ), self-endangering behavior (the specific external cause ) would hardly be to be assumed (mostly nonetheless assignment to the -natural type of death), or accidents (first fatal heart attack and then traffic accident, consequently natural death , or vice versa, consequently non-natural occurrence ?).
Finding and Consequences
The determination of the type of death of a person (not to be confused with the cause of death ) is carried out within the framework of an investigation ( Section 87 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure ) by a public prosecutor or judge with the assistance of a doctor. On the death certificate, the doctor who conducts the investigation marks the type of death. From the point of view of the physician carrying out the post-mortem examination, especially in the case of unexpected deaths, it is often not clear what type of death and what cause of death occurred. Then it makes sense to also document this and, for example, clarify the type and cause of death unequivocally through an autopsy and questioning the last treating doctor.
In cases of an unnatural or unexplained type of death, an autopsy (Section 87 (2) StPO) is usually carried out by forensic doctors at the instigation of the public prosecutor to determine the exact cause of death. The state treasury bears the costs for such a further clarification.
If a corpse is secured by a public prosecutor and a forensic autopsy is carried out, the treating physicians or relatives often do not find out the result at first, as their joint responsibility for death cannot be ruled out. It is a pending death investigation . If no indications of third-party negligence can be found, after their investigations have been completed, public prosecutors pass on some of the information to those who are justifiably interested.
statistics
Statistical evaluations of sections actually carried out suggest that every year around 2,000 homicides go undetected in Germany and that the cause of death statistics are afflicted with almost 11,000 falsely classified as natural deaths .
Web links
- www.aerzteblatt.de - Medical examination and death certificate: Competent implementation despite different laws in the countries
- www.aerzteblatt.de - Medical examination and death certificate: shedding light on the causes
- www.aerzteblatt.de - Medical examination and death certificate: Closing words
Individual evidence
- ^ Willibald Pschyrembel (Medical Dictionary) , 267th edition, de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin and Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-049497-6 , page 1809.
- ↑ Willibald Pschyrembel : Clinical Dictionary , 259th edition, electronic version 2002, keyword "type of death"