In medicine, death by natural causes is a loosely-defined term used by coroners describing death when the cause of death was a naturally occurring disease process, or was not apparent given medical history or circumstances. (It may also be described as death by "multiple organ failure".) Thus, deaths caused by active human intervention (as opposed to the failure of medical intervention to prevent death) are excluded from this definition, and are described as unnatural deaths.^{[citation needed]}

Note that "old age" is not a scientifically recognized cause of death; there is always a more proximal cause, such as cancer, heart disease, or liver failure (though the precise cause may be unknown in a particular case, and it could be one of a number of aging-associated diseases).

[edit] Categorization

Deaths due to any disease process are deaths by natural causes. The "unnatural" causes are usually given as accident (sometimes termed "death by misadventure"), suicide, and homicide.^[1] In some settings, other categories may be added. For example, a jail system may track the deaths of inmates due to acute intoxication separately.^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Death by Natural Causes
• What is death by natural causes?
• Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry, Annex A: 'Unnatural death' and 'death by natural causes'
• Actual Causes of Death in the US, 2000

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