| Peter H.M.Brooks 2006-12-06, 9:26 pm |
| Bob Dubery wrote:
>
>
> Technically speaking the doctor was wrong. AIDS didn't kill the
> patient. Some opportunistic infection that AIDS prevented the patient's
> body from fighting was the cause of death. Strictly speaking AIDS does
> not kill.
>
That's not quite true, and depends on whether you are concerned with
final or ultimate causes or proximate ones. My aunt, on her death
certificate, had five different causes of death listed. From your
perspective, and that of proximate cause, it is indeed ridiculous - even
Rasputin had only one cause of death (his heart stopped), and my aunt
was no Rasputin.
Though my aunt's death certificate tried to be comprehensive (they'd
given her a post mortem autopsy, so they had a pretty good idea), it
failed because it didn't list old age and a liking for cream as ultimate
causes.
Of course, for all of us, there is only one ultimate cause of death -
birth. Though Sterne, who we discussed here a day or so ago, would
probably, and correctly, list the big bang, after some peregrinations
through grand-parents, pre-human hominids, bacteria and so forth.
|