A death certificate is the official document that declares a
person is dead. Death certificates serve two purposes: they
prevent murder cover-ups by restricting those who can complete
them for non-natural deaths to trained officials who generally
have great latitude on whom they perform postmortem
examinations, and they provide public health statistics. Death
registration was first required in the United Kingdom in 1874.
Before then, it was not even necessary for a physician to view
the corpse. In the United States, Great Britain, and most
industrialized countries, physicians must now sign a death
certificate listing the presumed cause of death. Otherwise, a
medical examiner (forensic pathologist) will intervene with an
autopsy to determine the cause of death in the event that a case
requires police investigation. People use death certificates in
multiple ways. Survivors need death certificates to obtain
burial permits, make life insurance claims, settle estates, and
obtain death benefits. Public health depar