|
|
|
|
|
|
|
life to embryonic citizens. There were in addition wide ranges of variation even within nations in how long gestation must last to encode a stillbirth. In Maryland, (historically a Roman Catholic U.S. state), life was defined as "all products of conception." In the state of Washington, it was only those advanced beyond the "seventh month of uterogestation" (C.H./expert stat./46. doc. 43806, doss. 22685, 22 December 1927, 3). Even in discussing breathing as the sine qua non of life, the committee was forced to ask whether the baby breathed or only attempted to breathe. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A compromise position reached in 1930 was that a baby must have tried to breath three times to be ranked as an infant mortality rather than a stillbirth. Various editions of the ICD have had special sections devoted to this topic. Equally, the ultimate cause of death is also state defined. This was made explicit in 1932 when, if there were two equal underlying causes of death (e.g., cholera and leukemia), then the cause that would be most useful to the public health arm of the state (in this case cholera, which was a matter of public health concern) would be taken statistically as the underlying cause. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Categories of accidental death and death by suicide have similarly always inscribed a diverse series of government regulations and local bureaucratic contingencies. Consider this set of categories from the ICD's fifth revision (1938). In this edition there were many categories for suicide, with categories 163 (suicide by poisoning) and 164 (other forms of suicide) being devoted to it. Subcategories of the latter included: |
|
|
|
|
| 164. | f. Suicide by crushing. | | fa. Suicide on railways. | | fb. Other suicide by crushing. | | (ICD-5, 974) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some chief forms of accident included: |
|
|
|
|
| 187. | Cataclysm (all deaths, whatever their cause). | | 192. | Lightning. | | 193. | Other accidents due to electric currents. | | (ICD-5, 976). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
This latter is footnoted: "Except accidents from transport, accidents in mines and quarries, agricultural and forestry accidents, or accidents due to machinery, classed under nos. 169176, and deaths from operations of war, classed under nos. 196 and 197" (ICD-5, 976). |
|
|
|
|
|