Citation

Fingerhut LA, Hoyert DL, Picket D. Homicide Stud. 2003; 7(1): 85-91.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

This article discusses the action taken by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics with regard to the classification of deaths resulting from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. To address the challenge, the agency formed an ad hoc work group and after several months of deliberations, the group developed a set of new codes within the framework of the International Classification of Diseases that allows the identification of deaths from terrorism reported on death certificates through the National Vital Statistics System. The process that produced the codes and a set of guidelines related to the codes is presented. The definition of terrorism was one of the first issues addressed by the work group. To classify a death as terrorist related, it is necessary for the incident to be designated as such by the federal government. Neither a medical examiner nor a coroner who would be completing or certifying the death certificate nor the nosologist coding the death certificate would determine that an incident is an act of terrorism.