Medical Examiners' and Coroners' Handbook on Death Registration and Fetal Death Reporting

This handbook is designed to acquaint medical examiners and coroners with the vital registration system in the United States and to provide instructions for completing and filing death certificates and fetal death reports. Emphasis is directed toward the certification of medical information relating to these events when they come within the jurisdiction of the medical-legal officer (i.e., medical examiner or coroner).

A significant number of the deaths occurring in the United States must be investigated and certified by a medical-legal officer. Although State laws vary in specific requirements, deaths that typically require investigation are those due to unusual or suspicious circumstances, violence (accident, suicide, or homicide), those due to natural disease processes when the death occurred suddenly and without warning, when the decedent was not being treated by a physician, or the death was unattended.