One of the tasks assigned to physicians, and certainly not a task one thinks of when entering medical school, is to verify death. The first time you declare someone dead - for me, it was as a first year resident in the ICU - is a weird feeling because of the finality of it. As with anything you do as a physician for the first time there is some uncertainty that you aren't "messing up." But you don't need to be a doctor to declare someone dead because anyone can tell when someone or something is dead, right?