A Better Reckoning
It is time to improve our death certificates
By Dina Fine Maron
A crime scene for Scientific American 316, 10 (2017)
I was challenged to illustrate the story "A Better Reckoning", which unveils a problem with death certificates in the USA.
The article mentions that often the person who fills out a death certificate isn’t a doctor or other medical professional. I therefore depicted this grotesque scene where the police officer is the one to fill out a "death certificate", obviously not being a professional in this matter.
I compared a dead person with a dead tree.
The person who fills out a death certificate can make matters worse. Too often this person isn’t a doctor or other medical professional.
Once we have better death information we can make better decisions about when and how to spend our research and healthcare dollars. Understanding what kills us will help keep us healthier.
AD Michael Mrak
Copyright Nature America, Inc.
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