Queen Elizabeth’s death certificate says she died of ‘old age’, but what does that really mean?

Melbourne Australia:

Queen Elizabeth newly released The death certificate contains two intriguing words under the cause of her death – old age.

We may talk about people dying of old age in everyday speech. But who is actually dying of old age, medically, in the 21st century?

Such a mysterious cause of death not only raises questions about how someone died, but can also be difficult for the family and loved ones left behind.

Queen Elizabeth’s death certificate lists “old age” as the cause of death.

The many ways people die

The The main causes of death In England and Wales dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. heart disease; cerebrovascular disease (eg, stroke); cancer; and COVID. Other notable causes include chronic lower respiratory disease (eg asthma); flu. and pneumonia.

In fact, “old age” as a cause of death – along with the vague description of “vulnerability” – is It is often classified Under “Symptoms, Signs, and Unspecified Conditions”.

This latter category is among the top ten causes of death. But that’s currently down from COVID, and on average over a five-year period, less than from influenza and pneumonia.

interesting history

Old age, as a category that causes death, has a long history. It was a major cause of death in the 19th century, along with the vague description of “finding the dead.”

In the middle of the nineteenth century, Record someone’s death It moved from religious to secular, with the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836 (UK).

Then there was the historical publication, and Bertillon classification of causes of deathIt was written by the French statistician and demographer Jacques Bertillon.

Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking Wrote That death by anything other than what was on the official list was “unlawful, for example, death from old age”.

We might say that this is a bit redundant. Surely, by the end of the 19th century, it wasn’t illegal to die of old age?

What this indicates is that providing an accurate cause of death is important because it is a valuable tool for tracking mortality trends at different levels of the population.

In the end, the phrase “old age” became a last resort to describe an unknown cause of death. Or it becomes useful when a person has died from a number of complications, but when it is impractical or ethical to order an autopsy to find the exact underlying cause of death.

There is no closing

Another reason why “old age” is so rarely used as a cause of death in the 20th and 21st centuries is that it provides no closure to the families of the deceased.

Search It shows that families want information about how their loved ones died, not only because it can be useful for managing their health concerns, but also because it provides a solution to the death of their loved one.

An unknown cause of death can exacerbate grief and shock, especially if the death was sudden or unexpected. Researchers always argued Families form ongoing relationships with their loved ones after their death. Ascertaining how they died is part of how family members who have left behind their grief manage and memorialize the deceased.

good death

We may decide that asking for more information about how the Queen died at the age of 96 is just a shocking tickle. We may decide that the royal family deserves the privacy surrounding the intimate details of the Queen’s death.

However, a specific cause of death for someone who lived a distinguished life and died of old age, for example, can tell us a lot about how to live a healthy life and plan a good death.

(author:Mark TrabskySenior Research Fellow, La Trobe University)

(Information Disclosure Statement: Mark Trabsky receives funding from the Australian Research Council.)

This article has been republished from Conversation Under a Creative Commons License. Read the original article.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by the NDTV crew and is published from a syndicated feed.)