Glossary

A portal that records a person’s wishes and shares them with other medical health care professionals

Medical examiners are senior medical doctors who are trained in the legal and clinical elements of death certification processes and will provide independent scrutiny of the causes of death assist you in obtaining a death certificate and answer any address any concerns you may have

A document recording someone’s advance wishes for end-of-life care, if they become unable to state their own wishes at the time

Act of making arrangements a funeral or other service/plans prior to death. Advance Planning can involve simply recording one’s wishes or making financial arrangements

The act of placing a body of someone who has died in a grave

An area of a cemetery reserved in advance by a person or family, for burial when they die

Area of land for burials, cemeteries may be privately or publicly owned

Issued by the registry office, needs to be given to the funeral director for authority for burial

A portal that records a person’s wishes and shares them with other medical health care professionals

Person responsible for investigating the circumstances of someone’s death if the cause or identity of the person are unknown.

Process of preserving the body of someone who has died before the funeral

Everything owned by a person at the time of their death, including finances, property and personal possessions

Person who arranges a funeral for someone who has died on behalf of a bereaved family

Services which may be used to care for and prepare human remains for burial, may also include the arranging, supervising or conducting the funeral ceremony

Washing and dressing a deceased person

Vehicle specially designed to carry a coffin or casket in a funeral procession

Investigation by a coroner if the cause of someone’s death, or their identity, is unclear

Notification of a death whilst an inquest is on going

Funeral prayer

Dress/Cloth that is used to wrap and cover the deceased body

Issued by a doctor and sent to the registry office, confirms the cause of death

A room, usually in a hospital or funeral home, where the bodies of people who have died are kept and cared for before they are collected for their funeral

Allows funeral to take place whilst an inquest is on going

The act of having organs and other body parts, such as heart, lungs, kidneys, or retinas, transplanted into another person

Medical and emotional support for a person who is dying, in a hospice, hospital or at home

Issued by the coroner to the register office to confirm cause of death

A medical investigation of the body of a person who has died, ordered by a coroner to discover the cause of their death

The legal authority to manage an estate after they die

Local government office where the death is registered

The process of bringing a loved one back to their home country if they died abroad

Issued by the registry office, for probate and estate administration