Assignment

Difference between cause, mechanism and manner of death

Ali Saleem Butt
JFS (CSI)

Cause of Death
The cause of death is the disease or injury that produces the physiological disruption inside the body
resulting in death, for example, a gunshot wound to the chest.

Mechanism of Death
The mechanism of death is the physiological derangement that results in the death. An example of a
mechanism of death due to the gunshot wound described above is exsanguination (extreme blood
loss).

Manner of Death
The manner of death is how the death came about.

Manner of death can be classified in five ways:

1) Natural
2) Accident
3) Suicide
4) Homicide
5) Undetermined

A natural death occurs as a result of aging, illness, or disease. An accidental death occurs when

an injury or poisoning causes death, but it is unintentional. In this case, there can be no evidence
supporting the idea that the poisoning or injury occurred with an intent to harm or cause death.
A suicide results from an injury or poisoning occurring from a deliberate, self-inflicted act committed
to harm or cause death to oneself. A homicide occurs when death is caused by another
person. Undetermined is used as a classification when the information pointing toward one manner
of death is no more compelling than any others.