This chapter aims at giving an introduction to the event of death which usually is neglected or overlooked in the medical curriculum. Most students qualify without reading a sentence on this. They first encounter it, usually in the internship or residency and, being not prepared to handle it, most often it is a shattering experience for them. When a definition of death is required, doctors usually turn to brain death or biological death to define a person as being clinically dead. The leading cause of death in developing countries is infectious disease, whereas in developed countries, atherosclerosis—heart disease and stroke, cancer, and other diseases related to obesity and ageing are common. The natural series of changes in a person close to death are briefly discussed. Autopsies are performed for legal or medical purposes. A clinical autopsy is performed to find the medical cause of death or for research purposes. Someone with a dead brainstem is said to have undergone brain death and is never known to have recovered.