Death certificate cause of death

[asblindasabat]

My question is based on the fact the Queen’s death certificate has been released and it says the cause of death was “old age”

Obviously, that is true but I didn’t think an official record of a person’s death would record the cause using such a basic term?

I thought it would have to be the actual scientific/medical cause of death?

Just curious!

I thought the same - didn’t think it would be so generic, maybe just for her to stop gossiping?

I’m into genealogy and I’d like to know the answer to this as well. I’ve seen death certs from 100+ years ago say ‘old age’ but not modern day ones.

ultimately the Queen is a celeb. I’m not sure she should have to have the reason for death declared actually anyway.

It's the same cause of death as was listed for Prince Phillip

I also wondered the same but old age seems so vague when she was up and working two days before meeting Liz Truss.

My late mils one said the same in 2019.
She was the same age as the Queen.

My mum's was old age. Even though she had advanced dementia and had had a stroke

My mother’s said ‘Fraility of old age’ - that was 18 months ago.

I am sure that was what was listed on my FILs death certificate. He died at the age of 93 of nothing specific other than he was old.

Old age is still recorded on modern death certificates

I think some death certificates do just say old age. We don't live forever and sometimes it is nothing more than the person got old.

I've used this term many times. T.he body just gradually fails.

Interesting.

I did think that perhaps the certificate would have to say, for example, heart attack or stroke/ brain haemorrhage or whatever scientific names they use for those

It is not uncommon, and has been used on death certificates for a long time. I've done a fair bit of family tree research, and have come across it before.

My father in law died of "probably a heart attack". He was very old, frail and could barely walk.
To find out if it was a heart attack there would have had to be an autopsy. My mother in law didn't want him cut open so she declined one.
He was old. We were expecting it. We didn't really need to know the actual reason.
The Queen was old. We were expecting her passing too.

We're allowed to put Old Age as the primary cause of death if someone is over the age of 80 and there's no other obvious cause, such as an infection or something sudden like a stroke or heart attack.

I think it's good that people are actually still allowed to die from being old - if that's not true at 96 then when would it be?!

So I was reading a book about Harold shipman and apparently suspicions were raised because he recorded this for loads of his patients

My dads included frailty of old age and a specific illness , my mums was just specific

Oh I totally agree but was just wondering as I thought “old age” was a bit vague for a death certificate, I had thought they’d have recorded a scientific cause, even though it was old age really

Same as her husband, as Winnie said. Which is fine, I don't think we need any more detail than that.

It was listed as cause of death on granny's certificate. She died six years ago, she was into her 100s. She wasn't ill, just old. Her death happened very quickly within a few hours.

The trouble is that often the 'scientific reason' isn't known apart from that everything is kind of wearing out. That's old age. As a pp said the only way for more certainty is to do a post-mortem on everyone - highly distressing for the family, upsetting for elderly people who may anticipate this happening, time-consuming, expensive and may still not be conclusive.

She died at the old age of 96. Thats good enough for me, I dont need to speculate or spread rumours.

my dad died earlier this year at 98 fraility of old age and heart disease were mentioned but he didn't have a heart attack or a stroke.

In the last week or so he just got weaker and weaker so within 8 days he had gone from taking a small church service to feeling weak when he got home four days later he was in bed but still talking and drinking and then stopping talking for last 16 hours to dying so I understand that it was really his body just wearing out and so eventually the heart and lungs just stop.

So I can quite see how the quuen could have been failing made a huge effort on tuesday and then was simply too exhausted to do much else and faded away rapidly in next 48 hours

Establishing the scientific, singular/primary cause would often mean a post mortem. Why would you put the family and the bodily remains of a person through that when they died at a good age with no obvious concerns? It benefits no one beyond morbid curiosity does it?

My Grandad died age 93 in 2016 and his cause of death was listed on old age. His doctor did say it was uncommon and he didn't get to put it all to often.