[How to certify death and the cause of death]

In this article 10 important questions for physicians and other health care providers who are confronted with death during practice of their profession are answered. In the vast majority of cases, the attending physician can perform postmortem examination of those deceased. This article describes how an postmortem examination should be carried out correctly, what to do in unclear circumstances surrounding death and when an unnatural death should be considered. We also discuss how to correctly complete the cause of death declaration.