► non-violent death resulting from:

• cardiovascular diseases;

• respiratory diseases;

• CNS diseases;

• GIT diseases;

• malignant neoplasm;

• infectious diseases;

• pregnancy and delivery;

• diseases of other organs and systems of the body.

Forensic pathology classifies death into non-violent (resulting from disease) and violent, caused by external effects (mechanical injury, hypoxia, starvation, etc.).

In case of non-violent death, postmortem is performed by pathologists. However, death from a disease sometimes occurs suddenly, in unusual conditions (at home, in office, in sleep, etc.), unexpectedly for others, in apparently healthy individual. The unexpected nature of death always necessitates ruling out external violence: mechanical injury, poisoning, etc. At a forensic examination this is an indication of a sudden death case.

By type, violent death is classified into death following a homicide, a suicide or an accident. Establishment of death type is based on social and legal rather than medical criteria, thus it is the prerogative of the investigation bodies or the court, and is beyond the competence of a forensic pathologist. The forensic pathologist is to say about the type of violent death only filling in the death certificate, in accordance with the data recorded in official legal documents. The medical data about a human body (clinical and morphological) constitute the foundation for judgement on the death causes and mechanism, thus it is formulated regardless of the death circumstances.