Elizabeth II finally not dead of old age? An expert raises a far from trivial point

The death of Elizabeth II, who breathed her last Thursday, September 8opened a long mourning period for the Royal Family which extended several days after Her Majesty’s funeral. Following this period of meditation, on Thursday September 29, the Scottish authorities made public thedeath certificate of the late queen, allowing to discover the cause of his death. Thus, the “old age” would have put an end to the seventy years of reign of the mother of King Charles III who died “peacefully”, at the age of 96. The problem? The term lacks precision since aging is not not a cause of death in the biological sense nor a pathology.

“Old age is not a cause of death. It’s just an elegant formula to preserve medical secrecy.l”, tweeted Christophe Trivalle, geriatrician in hospital Paul-Brousse de Villejuif. To know more about the subject, Marianna handed the microphone to healthcare professionalFriday, September 30, 2022.”Two days before disappearing, Queen Elizabeth met the British Prime Minister: this is her last public appearance. So 48 hours before she died, she was on her feet. Difficult to speak of ‘death of old age’ in this case!” he indicated. And to continue, specifying his words: “A death necessarily has a cause, which can be linked to other pathologies: cardiovascular disease, cancer, infection… The queen did not die of old age, that does not make sense.”

Elizabeth II: the real cause of her death, a well-kept secret?

The omerta around the death of Elizabeth II was finally lifted for a very specific reason. Indeed, this being died in Scotland, death registration is compulsory under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1965, thus including the presentation of a death certificate to a registrar. On the contrary, in England, it would not have been necessary to communicate the official cause of death of the queen, the Record Act of 1836 does not apply to monarchs. And if Christophe Trivalle remains perplexed by the word “old age” used in the sovereign’s certificate, he conceded that such inaccuracy was nevertheless common thing : “When we speak of death from old age, we include all deaths for which we do not have a precise medical diagnosis. […] When a person dies, especially an elderly person, we do not necessarily do an autopsy, whereas we practiced more a few decades ago.”