At 19:03 22/10/06 +0100, Kevin McConway wrote (in part):
>Indeed I was. I believe it's called a 'medical certificate of cause of
>death'. Sorry about the confusion. However, I think my basic point just
>about remains --- actually I don't think we know (well, I certainly don't)
>which, if any, of these various pieces of paper corresponds to the 'death
>certificates' referred to in the Lancet article.
Indeed so, and I was careful to indicate that I haven't a clue as to what
systems of death certification/registration exist in Iraq. I was merely
responding to comment that you (Kevin) made specifically about the UK,
which I think had the potential to confuse/mislead. As for the 'medical
certificates as to cause of death', or whatever they are called (I've
completed hundreds of them in my time, but didn't pay too much attention to
their name even 'back then', and certainly don't know what they are called
now!), I don't imagine that many people in the UK have seen, or even heard
of, them unless they have registered a death. To nearly everyone in the
UK, 'Death Certificate' refers to the copy of an entry in the Register of
Deaths.
>Well, yes, but to nit-pick, according to the GRO website (at
>www.gro.gov.uk) actually one does not in every case need to have
>registered the death in order to get the necessary certificate for a
>burial (which is yet another certificate), though not for a cremation.
>However, since this authority also has to come from the Registrar, it is
>still, I guess, virtually impossible for the registration not to be
>completed properly later.
Indeed. I over-simplified slightly, for convenience. It is actually not
all that uncommon for authority to be given for a burial prior to formal
registration, although (if I recall correctly) that authority usually comes
from a Coroner, not the Registrar. This usually happens in cases where
there is going to be an Inquest (sometimes quite a while into the
future). The death cannot be fully 'registered' until the verdict of that
Inquest is known, but if the situation is such that there are no
contentious issues concerning the (medical) cause of death, the Coroner
will usually allow burial prior to the Inquest (and
registration). However, as you imply, such situations only arise if one
has already got the case into the 'registration pipeline' - so I stick to
my view that it is, in practice, next-to-impossible to fail to register a
death in the UK unless one successfully conceals the fact that the death
has taken place.
Kind Regards,
John
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