It is all in the title.
Where you live, who can declare a person deceased.....???
- Thread starter Sourdough
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Anyone who Finds the Body...!!!
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The county medical examiner if it is a death at home, as well as a doctor or coroner, here in Texas. It may be different in other counties, I don't know. Not really something I would research ordinarily. That was my experience. Nurse wouldn't come out, said CME had to do it.
In Maryland, the hospice nurse declared it.
In Maryland, the hospice nurse declared it.
WRONG.........
Some places EMT can, other places EMT can't.
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That is what I found also, every state is different. Like, when you find a person has passed you don't just call the funeral home. And if the body is being donated to science, someone still has to come and dispatch it to some place. Every body has to be accounted for legally. that sounds like a joke.
State law requires the doctor who last attended the deceased person to complete the medical portion of the death certificate within 72 hours of death. The death certificate must then be filed with the state registrar of births and deaths within 72 hours of taking custody of the body and before disposing of the remains. After that I presume it becomes some kind of criminal investigation for unattended death.
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@Sourdough I also posted this which I don't think you saw, but maybe!
I think there is also a regulation on "closing" the body bag "TOTALLY" till someone with the required authority has declared the body deceased.
I notice in Anchorage, even when they find a body that is clearly dead, they take it to the hospital.
I notice in Anchorage, even when they find a body that is clearly dead, they take it to the hospital.
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I am curious, why is this important and/or related to homesteading?
This subject is far more important they most appreciate. It can greatly affect the persons last will and testament. Even if the deaths are only a few minutes apart.
It is very important. Lobby a Moderator to move the thread.
Sounds like a was of time and resources to me. But that's probably the law there. Laws are made by politicians. Who for the most part, don't appear to know much about things they make laws for. Which explains why you might be required to drag an obviously dead body to a hospital, wasting the time of everybody involved and potentially causing additional and unnecessary mental duress for the family. Common sense should rule. But it doesn't.
Well, I did one time. A dead guy was still breathing, sort of, and when I reached under to support his head, my fingers went into his brain up to my knuckles. You aren't coming back from a 7.62 head shot when your brains are laying in the dirt, so I let him be at peace. Wear your helments folks.
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Even when they've been run through a highway snowblower?
I am questioning who is qualified "Legally" to declare someone dead.
I think this is what he was driving at...
Consider a married couple both dying in a 'murder-suicide'.
If the wife dies first, then the husband next, the estate would be distributed according to the husband's will, the wife's will is meaningless.
Oh, on topic, down here until the coroner's office issues a 'death-certificate', the person is not 'legally dead'.
There are "important" issues with chain of custody of a body.
Car crashes are the most common situation where time of death becomes important. for settling an estate.
What would be the "important issue" of taking, say, a decomposed body to a hospital? Chain of custody is one thing, but you don't need to add extra and unnecessary links to the chain. A decomposed body is "obviously deceased" and could go straight to the morgue without violating any logical chain of custody. I imagine this is what's actually done in practice, even in Anchorage. Many morgues (which handle dead bodies) are inside hospitals (which normally handle live bodies or questionable bodies). This may be why obviously dead bodies are "always taken to the hospital" (because that's where the morgue is - probably in the basement).
My grand ma had cancer and was obvisously not gonna make a recovery. Dr's sent her home at her wish to live out her days at home. She spent her last month mostly in a coma and on a morphine drip to ease her pain. When she passed the funeral home came and got the body. I'm not sure anyone else was involved.
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Anyone can say he/she is dead, but legally only the county Coroner can.
And once you are dead in South Carolina, only your next of kin can make up your arrangements for burial.
Which is wife, then oldest child................
And once you are dead in South Carolina, only your next of kin can make up your arrangements for burial.
Which is wife, then oldest child................
Long-long-long ago in Alaska a man (whom I did meet many decades later) cremated his wife. They live far from any humans. It was mid-January. He mover her to the woodshed as the homestead prove-up cabin was tiny. But the mice and ermines were eating her.
So, he cleared the snow from a spot on the lake near the cabin, hauled as much wood as he thought he could spare, took anything combustible he could live without till spring and cremated his wife.
Alaska Judge Singleton was the one who first told me of this case (it was his case). The man had come to town as soon as was possible and explained what he had done.
Note: she died of natural causes.
So, he cleared the snow from a spot on the lake near the cabin, hauled as much wood as he thought he could spare, took anything combustible he could live without till spring and cremated his wife.
Alaska Judge Singleton was the one who first told me of this case (it was his case). The man had come to town as soon as was possible and explained what he had done.
Note: she died of natural causes.
Will's can deal with deaths that are only minutes apart. In my first will (which I hand wrote), I required that I pre-decease my wife by 90 days in order for her to inherit. She did the same. (We had no kids at the time.)
If we got into a car crash, and we were both in the hospital, and I died on day 2, and she died on day 3, there was no need to have my estate go to her, only to have her die the next day, and have the estate suffer two taxable events, two probate proceedings, etc. Granted, I didn't have much back then, so the chances of estate taxes were nil...
Of course, that means you shouldn't hand write it like I did. Get an attorney. (Although, I have to say, at one point my wife bought a wills & estates software program from Costco, and I think it was pretty decent. But, for peace of mind, I'd hire an attorney rather than just relying on advice given in this forum.
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Of course people have also been known to come back to life or be nearly mostly dead.........
Back in the old days, if there was a pounding sound coming from the coffin, they just turned up the funeral music.
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You're bad, @Supervisor42 what would we do without you.Back in the old days, if there was a pounding sound coming from the coffin, they just turned up the funeral music.
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Back in the old days, if there was a pounding sound coming from the coffin, they just turned up the funeral music.
Ben
Sounds like Missouri law is the same or very similar to where you live. This is verbatim from the statute:
The funeral director (or other person in charge of final disposition of the body) completes the death certificate with input from the next of kin and medical professionals. The funeral director collects personal information about the deceased person from the next of kin and obtains the medical certification from the medical professional who has information about the person's death. (This professional is usually the physician, physician assistant, assistant physician, or advanced practice registered nurse who was in charge of the deceased person's care for the illness or condition that caused the death.) (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 193.145 (2024).)
I can see where if a person moved a body, they could be charged with tampering with evidence. Maybe even if they simply moved it off the high traffic highway. Or back from the edge of a cliff or pulled it out of the water.
