Chao T C
Department of Forensic Medicine, Singapore General Hospital.
Singapore Med J. 1990 Apr;31(2):162-5.
In Singapore, every deceased person must have a death certificate stating the cause of death. The death certificates are prepared from certificates of cause of death signed by medical practitioners, pathologists, coroners or inspectors of death. The death certificate is a legal document and the person who certifies the cause of death is responsible for the accuracy of the facts. Singapore has a Coroner's system and all deaths due to unnatural, violent, accidental, sudden and unknown causes must be reported to the coroner. These cases are usually subjected to post-mortem examination after which pathologist will sign the certificate of cause of death. Thus only pathologists are allowed to certify unnatural causes of death. All other categories of personnel are allowed to certify natural causes only. Any deviation will result in the certificate be rejected by the Registrar of Death and the matter referred to the Coroner. The offending doctor would be reprimanded by the court. Examples of wrong certification will be given and it is hoped that medical practitioners will not make similar mistakes.
在新加坡，每位逝者都必须有一份注明死因的死亡证明。死亡证明是根据执业医生、病理学家、验尸官或死因调查员签署的死因证明书开具的。死亡证明是一份法律文件，证明死因的人要对事实的准确性负责。新加坡设有验尸官制度，所有非自然、暴力、意外、突然和不明原因导致的死亡都必须报告给验尸官。这些案件通常要进行尸检，之后病理学家会签署死因证明书。因此，只有病理学家才被允许证明非自然死因。所有其他类别的人员只被允许证明自然死因。任何偏差都将导致死亡登记员拒绝该证明，并将此事提交给验尸官。违规医生将受到法庭斥责。文中将给出错误证明的例子，希望执业医生不会犯类似错误。
