No matter how much we run from it, death is something that none of us can really escape. Someone once said, paperwork is what separates us from the animals and just like everyone another human process, death also has a tonne of paperwork that needs to be handled. For starters, deaths have to be authenticated by medical professionals, and the process has to be carried out in all fairness by doctors.

If a medical practitioner fails to issue a death certificate it can have multiple legal implications and issues for the family of the deceased. All the facts relating to the person’s death have to be verified by the medical practitioner before issuing a death certificate and cannot issue one under any pressure. The cause of death or probable cause of death needs to be mentioned, and doctors should do their utmost to mention it, but it should be concluded only on clinical findings and not extraneous factors.

A death certificate and the most probable cause of death can only be issued when the doctor treating the patient or individual is fully satisfied with the clinical diagnosis and corroborative tests. This could be an electrocardiogram in acute myocardial infarction or fluid in meningitis

A doctor may certify the death but the cause of death would have to be issued only after the verification and review of all facts of the cause, causing and resulting in the death itself. If the death was a suspicious one, caused due to unnatural causes, the doctor may only certify death but not the cause. They will have to inform the police to further investigate and handle a postmortem. Before issuing a death certificate, doctors must verify and ascertain the name, age, sex, religion, and address of the deceased.