Presumed Death Certification: Medico-Legal and Bioethical Reflections

Presumed death certification represents a legal instrument aimed at judicially ascertaining the death of a missing person in the absence of direct biological evidence. While primarily rooted in civil law, this declaration carries significant medico-legal and bioethical implications, particularly in contexts involving unresolved disappearances, mass disasters, or severely compromised human remains. Recent legislative reforms in several jurisdictions, including Italy, have shortened the temporal thresholds for issuing presumed death declarations, thereby increasing the relevance of scientific identification methods and ethical scrutiny. This contribution explores the medico-legal role of forensic sciences in supporting presumed death determinations and reflects on the associated bioethical dimensions, with particular attention to human identification and the rights of families.