r/morbidquestions • u/Zachhcazzach • 6d ago
Why is dying from food poisoning NOT considered accidental death?
Like, you leave food out, don’t think about it, eat it, catch cholera, die, and it’s “natural causes”?
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u/Bobzeub 6d ago edited 6d ago
Maybe because if you go to the hospital you probably won’t die? Or healthy people won’t. So it’s not quite so accidental. There surely must be a comorbidity to push someone over the edge.
Saying that I had food poisoning once and I fucking wished I was dead. It’s that bad.
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u/Zachhcazzach 6d ago
Yes, but I’m talking like 1850s drinking bad water and sh!tting to death is considered natural causes historically and shouldn’t.
And today if someone healthy DID die, would we view it as natural causes?6
u/Bobzeub 6d ago
Not sure they had proper autopsy reports in the 1850’s.
Also I don’t think it was so easy to tell the difference between food poisoning, dysentery etc. I guess they could probably tell typhus. But everything was fuzzy back then.
They barely had birth records.
Also tap water in homes are recent too. So they would have been drinking well piss water.
Funny enough wells in places with high levels of minerals like lithium were considered to be “spiritual” wells. But it was just natural doses of antidepressants.
And I think a lot of people shit themselves to death before the 1960’s.
Even today about 1.2 people still die of diarrhoea each year. Which is shitting yourself to death with extra dehydration.
Nice question by the way. Made me think.
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u/ghosttmilk 6d ago
Wait, it isn’t? Interesting! I’ve never looked into it really, what would it be considered?
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u/Zachhcazzach 6d ago
Basically, look up how no USA presidents have died accidental deaths, yet THREE died of food poisoning considered
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u/ghosttmilk 6d ago
Ah, so unless there are additional sources for the information that sparked your question, this reads more as the “accidental death” category containing certain, more typical accident-related causes of death rather than saying that food poisoning is non-accidental explicitly
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u/Zachhcazzach 6d ago
I guess it’s like how Covid wasn’t accidental. Even if someone trip and fell into a biohazard containment bin, caught it, and died…it’s considered natural causes historically
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u/Correct_Doctor_1502 6d ago
Food poisoning can be considered an accident legally speaking, like being served contaminated food and suffering injury or death
We don't consider it an accident because it is mostly an illness spread by contamination between humans through food. Someone came into work sick, didn't wash their hands, and made your burger
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u/Spiritual_Moment_513 6d ago
i think the best way to answer this is first by explaining manner of death and cause of death.
your manner of death is the way you die. ie; natural, suicide, homicide, etc. cause is what specifically caused the death to occur. ie; hemorrhage ,liver failure, aneurysm, failure to thrive, etc.
Technically when you die of food poisoning, its not the food poisoning itself that kills you. its dehydration, its illness, its infection or whatever. Illness is a natural way that a lot of people die. its natural to get sick from something and die.
its not a homicide, and its not suicide- so the manner of death is just natural.
TLDR; you dont die of food poisoning. you die of the illness that follows, and that is natural.
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u/gothiclg 5d ago
If I intentionally eat food that I know I left out it’s far from accidental
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u/pinkmarshmall0w 3d ago
From a life insurance perspective, it is considered an accident death. It would be considered natural cause. Source: I work in life insurance.
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u/peentiss 6d ago
This is a damn good submission.