Cause of death - the disease or injury that initiates a chain of events, brief or prolonged, which produces a fatal outcome.
Mechanism of death - the final physiologic derangement, incompatible with continued life, produced by the cause of death, e.g. sepsis, respiratory depression, cardiac dysrhythmia, etc.
Manner of death - a classification of the way in which the cause of death came about, specifically, natural, homicidal, suicidal or accidental.
Natural death - death due to natural causes, i.e. due to a spontaneous or naturally occurring disease or degenerative process.
Accidental death - unnatural death where there is no evidence of intent to cause harm.
Suicide - unnatural death resulting from a purposeful action, explicit or implicit, taken to end one’s life.
Homicide - unnatural death resulting from the killing of one person by another (irregardless of justification).
Manner undetermined- the ruling applied when insufficient evidence or information was adduced (usually about intent) to assign a manner of death.
