Word question: Why do hospitals "pronounce" someone dead?

“Declared dead” is usually done while someone is under medical care and is when a Doctor determines that a medical team should cease its efforts to revive someone.

Pronounce was originally used to describe making a formal declaration.

The other common form of using the word with that connotation is “I now pronounce you husband and wife”,

~(Maybe pronouncing someone married is the same as pronouncing them dead).

Some states you. are not dead until a doctor “pronounces” you dead !

Prison guards are not medical professionals.

I actually never write that word. I usually write “Time of death”.

On TV shows the doctor often says, “I’ll call it, time of death xx:xx.”

I think the media maybe uses “pronounced” if I’m remembering where I hear it.

It’s probably just from custom, but I guess you are asking how did that become part of what is customary. Pronounce means an official announcement. So, maybe it is saying an official confirmation of death rather than a lay person saying when the person died.

Like if a journalist reported that Sally found her husband dead in the living room as opposed to the ER doctor officially pronouncing him dead.

In the same vein, why are couples “pronounced” man and wife (or whatever pronoun fits here) instead of “declared” man and wife (or preferred pronouns)?

The way it was explained to me is you’re“pronounced” dead when a professional medical staff says that you’ve met ALL the requirements of no longer living. You are “declared” dead when a non-medical group notice that you are no longer breathing but you have NOT been pronounced dead by the experts. In this case, it probably wasn’t obvious what killed him so the medical professionals were used. I’d venture to say that the cops declared him dead until the medical staff actually pronounced him dead.

Just guessing that it goes back to the kings and kings of yore.

How awful @Caravanfan….

@Dutchess_III Part of the job.

Still….