Non Disclosure Of Death Cause

[tali1]

Sometimes i have read of a death in the papers/online/tv and no specific cause is given other than "passed away after a short/long illness"
Now, is there any reason for non disclosure of cause of death?- such as (just a curious/wild/clumsy guess )AIDS or similar ?

[shoota]

Yes there is a reason - the surviving relatives would rather not disclose it.

[Prudie]

Surely because it's none of our business to know what people died of, it's disrespectful IMO

[ummmm]

Sometimes there is no cause. Sometimes someones heart just stops beating.

[ChuckFickens]

AIDS doesn't cause death BTW (not directly anyhow)

[LyndaB]

It's no-one else's business!

[gness]

Why on earth do you want to know what the cause was? Why do you think because we don't say what the illness was it has to be "AIDS or similar"?

[Mosaic]

Tali, we're probably the first generation able to utter the word 'cancer' - many older people still cannot and so if a relative suffers the Big C they will still use euphemisms to explain or announce a death. 'A short illness', 'a long illness bravely borne' etc are all such euphemisms. Or, they are a polite way of saying 'X has died, the rest is none of yours'.
Like Chuck says, dying of AIDS is not commonplace in this country, so I doubt this would ever be a veiled reference to AIDS.