Death Certificate Template

The death certificate is an important document issued by medical consultants to certify the death of a person. It is an important document used to register the death of a person to calculate the statistics of the total population. The certificate contains the date of death, location of death, and causes of the death to enter into the official register. It is a legal document that is produced for the governmental jurisdiction and the purpose of this certificate is to report the actual cause of death whether it is due to accident, natural death, or murder. The death certificate is required to arrange burial evidence and to collect the life insurance of a person.

Time to Issue Death Certificate

The authorities who issue death certificates usually require a certificate from the physicians to validate the original cause of death and to provide the identity of the deceased person. The physician thoroughly checks the deceased person to see if the person is dead or suffering from brain death. It is the responsibility of a physician to promptly check the dead person to trigger the issuance process of the death certificate and delay in this process from the side of the physician is a crime and the physician can lose his/her practice license. Death certificates may be issued on the orders of the court to declare the death of an absent person.

Here is a preview of this Free Sample Death Certificate Template created using MS Word,

The certificate is often issued at the request of police after the autopsy to verify that the person is not performing foul play. In case of accidental deaths, the survival chances are less, and in these cases, the death certificate is issued by the police officers. The autopsy is usually performed before issuing a death certificate. Four important items should be written on the death certificate:

• The immediate reasons for death, include heart attack, accident, brain damage, etc.
• The intermediate reasons for death that may strongly be connected to immediate causes, like myocardial infraction
• The underlying causes that may straightly lead to death such as atherosclerosis
• Details of any other diseases, disorders of the person, time of death, and other important details

Uses of Death Certificate

• The death certificate helps you to claim the benefits of life insurance
• It helps the family members to claim the pensions of a deceased person
• It is helpful to settle estates by submitting certain facts about the decedent
• To elaborate on the causes and circumstances of death
• Explanation of death place and interment services
• Complete evidence of age, gender, and race to avoid potential problems
• Genealogical information

Public Health Uses of Statistical Data

• The death certificate is used to measure the length of expected life and monitor the rate of infant deaths
• It proves helpful in determining the specific incidents and the causes of death
• It helps physicians control a communicable disease
• It enables concerned authorities to monitor the risk factors that become the reason for premature death
• Helps in the investigation of fatal accidents
• Access ecological and job-related health hazards

Here is the download link for this Death Certificate Template,