Thread: Cause of Death - A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine

Life and death are in constant conflict, one cannot occur without the other. To experience life we must also taste death. This eternal conflict and interdependence is a recurring theme in books, movies, plays and operas.
Because death is an inescapable reality of life, as a writer, yoy must deal with it, weaving it into your story, either as a secondary player, or as the mayor theme.
To write believably, you cannot avoid conflict, arguments, fights, riots or war. Conflict is the driving force behind all plots and must be met straight-on. Death is life's ultimate conflict; the eternal human struggle to understand, cope with, and finally accept and make peace with it. Your characters must be at war with death: screaming out with pain when it robs them of their children; horrified when they face their own death; and fearful when they ponder its meaning.
It's important do a research about natural and unnatural causes of death; murders and suicides; the autopsy; the coroner's report; what happens to the evidence; and how the body is handled. That will help you with the specific details for appropiate scenes.

For example these is the sequence of events after a death:

- A body is discovered.
- The body is pronounced dead by the appropiate person, usually a phisician, but sometimes by a nurse or paramedic.
- The body is sent to the morgue or funeral home, identified by families or friends, and tagged.
- Either the attending physician determines the cause of death, or the coroner evaluates the death and determines if an autopsy is required to establish the cause of death.
- If indicated, a medical-legal autopsy is performed.
- The death certificate is filled out, stating the cause of death after determined by the autopsy.
- All of the materials obtained (autopsy report, photographs, toxicology test results and opinions) are turned over to the authorities and become a part of the Corpus Delicti, or "body of evidence"
- The body is then turned over to the family and becomes the property and responsabiliy of the next of kin for either cremation or embalming and burial.



*I found this information on a book called Cause of Death a Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine from Keith D. Wilson.