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At what point is a human considered officially dead?

Legally, you are not dead until someone says you are dead.

You can be pronounced or declared dead. Each state in the USA has its own statutes that cover this. Typically a doctor or nurse can pronounce, and everyone else (police officers, EMT’s, firefighters) will declare death.

One of the hardest parts of my job is estimating the PMI- the Post Mortem Interval. This is the amount of time that has elapsed since your biological processes have stopped and you were pronounced.

We use several methods to determine this- rigor mortis, algor mortis, palor mortis, stage of decomposition, insect activity, etc. But they are all an educated guess, and most coroners or medicolegal death investigators will tell you “sometime between the last credible witness of when they were alive and when they were pronounced.”


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But any estimate given is in a time span of several hours to days. It is not like TV and movies where they narrow it down to minutes.

But the time listed on your death certificate is the time you were pronounced. If you were in the hospital, this most likely will be at, or very close to, the time your biological processes stopped- your heart stopped beating or breathing stopped. It could also be when you are declared “brain dead.” Brain death requires several specific tests, and it usually has to be done by more than one physician.

If you are not in the hospital at the time of your death, then it will be when someone finds you.

This can cause some legal issues with regard to inheritance, but that is usually determined in court. The death certificate will not be amended- as your time of death is when you are pronounced.

For example, neighbors report to police the sound of a gunshot. Police go and find Joe Brown with a SIGSW (self-inflicted gun shot wound), he is still warm and it is obvious that this just occurred. Medics come in and declare the death at 07:30 hours. Police are investigating the scene and several hours later find his wife decomposing in the basement (or solidly frozen in a freezer). Police don’t even call in medics, they declare her at that time. The wife’s time of death will be on the same date at 10:45. Obviously she has been dead much longer- but the time of death on the death certificate is when she was found.

Now let us assume they are wealthy, and both have children from earlier marriages. Then you can have a whole legal battle on your hands!


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Have you known this before or is this information new to you? Tell us in the comments below!

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Що Ви думаєте з цього приводу?
80 Comments
Tim Gaines
My immediate answer was "When they vote Democrat."
43
24.10.2018 12:57
Fatratbrown
Would you jackasses leave politics out of at least this!! I play this to get away for a while.
25
19.07.2019 06:38
robert karel
Tim Gaines, always someone dragging politics into something!
9
18.02.2019 02:55
Debbie Young
Very interesting bit of info...I like these stories
5
23.11.2021 04:57
Patty Urban
Hmmm... There is a protocol in Michigan for declaring dead. It is 6 steps/tests. One is checking reflexes, one is pouring ice water in the ear canal. This way there are no mistakes. - you know, unless it is extremely obvious.
0
03.08.2024 05:07
John W Shreve
Mac Anslow, You'll catch up.
0
12.06.2024 11:36
John W Shreve
Interesting but a bit morbid. I need to go watch a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
1
12.06.2024 11:35
Marian Spitzig
My husband’s hospice nurse went with the time we called her. She was there within the hour.
1
09.03.2024 11:22
Mac Anslow
But it is done different in England
1
23.07.2023 06:26
Cecilia Jorge Greene
We should all have a will to prevent battles between heirs.
1
15.04.2023 05:01
April
Pattie Cangelosi, So very sorry for your loss
0
15.03.2023 05:36
Tammi Brass
😢 rip, baby brother 💔😢
1
10.06.2022 04:38
konrad
I remember decades ago, there was an interesting legal battle regarding the death, in a plane crash, of a married couple. Since the wife or husband were the "universal" heir, the relatives of both sides of the family were fighting over who had died first, making the other the universal heir. A pity they didn't have children...
2
14.01.2022 06:13
Fiona Kull
Madi Marven, people stop breathing all the time. does not mean they are dead, unless they don't start up again.
2
02.01.2022 06:22
Madi Marven
Would have thought that stopping breathing would be a Hint!!
4
08.12.2021 07:55
Dora Diaz
Interesting views of death tumes
2
11.10.2021 06:04
hoke garnto
I never knew this, but I now know why my wife that passed away on March 10, 2004 was not declared dead until the hospice nurse got out to our place of residence until after 12 midnight on March 11, 2004 and declared her dead. She died of stage 4 lung cancer and died between 11:00pm & 11:30pm on March 10, 2004 was when I found her and could not get no response from her, so I called hospice and reported it like I was suppose to. Her date that she died on was recorded as March 11, 2094 on her death certificate.
4
04.08.2020 04:42
mrmoss
Tim Gaines, good answer, but Republican
1
10.05.2020 07:19

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