Why is it inappropriate to ASK HOW someone died?

[QUESTlON]

Growing up when I heard someone died, I would ask HOW? People would get so upset, saying it was inappropriate or "I don't want to talk about it"
The latter I can understand, but after given time to grieve, I would like to know how someone died so I could avoid it.

[OliverHeldens]

You probably won't get an accurate answer anyways. My dad recently had a friend where everyone said, "He drank himself to death". In reality there was something else that caused it(like pills or something else in the mix) because nobody dies just from alcohol with zero other known issues, but apparently they thought it to be more socially acceptable to say it was alcohol.

[TomPaine]

Because deaths like autoerotic asphyxiation still have a societal stigma. If it's something normal, no one will have an issue, but they don't want to say if it was something embarrassing like an OD.

[Bo_Flecks]

My mother in law died a couple of day ago. The death certificate lists four different causes of death. She was 80. Sometimes it’s just easier to say, “old age”, or deflect the question in general.

[BalognaNbeans]

Safe & Effective