Explanation of Article 353
The first paragraph defined the illness of death as the illness in which a person is unable to continue their usual activities, where death is likely and connected to it. From the definition, it is clear that for an illness to be considered an illness of death, the following conditions must be met:
The first condition: The illness must incapacitate the person from continuing their usual activities. It is not required for the patient to be bedridden; they may not be, yet still unable to manage their affairs. If a person is unable to manage their affairs due to old age and not illness, it is not considered an illness of death.
The second condition: This illness must naturally lead to death in most cases; the illness may be fatal from the beginning, or it may start as a simple illness and then worsen to the point where the patient's condition is feared to be fatal. If the illness has not reached this level of severity, it is not considered an illness of death, even if it incapacitates the patient from managing their affairs, such as a person suffering from an eye infection that impairs vision, or a disease leading to the amputation of a leg. The assessment of whether the illness naturally leads to death is for specialists, namely doctors.
The third condition: This illness must be connected to death; it is required that the illness ends in death, with the patient dying before recovering from their illness, even if the death is due to another cause. It is not required for the illness to have affected the patient's psyche or cognition. If the illness is chronic and prolonged, such as paralysis, tuberculosis, diabetes, or hypertension, and the patient dies, it is not considered an illness of death if the duration is long without the illness worsening. If the illness worsens for a long period and then the patient dies, it is not considered a death in illness, even if the illness incapacitated the patient from managing their affairs and confined them to bed. The reason is that the prolonged state of the illness prevents the patient from despairing of life and aligns the illness with their usual habits.
The second paragraph of the article clarified what is considered equivalent to the illness of death, which requires the following conditions to be met:
The first condition: The person must be in a situation surrounded by the danger of death, such as in war, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, or other natural disasters, or a naturally deadly epidemic, or sentenced to death with no chance of exoneration.
The second condition: It is generally expected that such a situation naturally leads to death, making the person believe their end is near, and it is not required for the person to be ill.
The assessment of whether the dangerous situation surrounding the person is equivalent to the illness of death is for the court to decide based on the circumstances and details of the case.
The burden of proving the existence of the illness of death lies with the party interested in proving it, who contests the validity of the action against them.
Related To
Article 353
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Terminal illness means an illness whereby a person becomes unable to conduct his affairs and death is likely to be caused thereby and actually results therein.
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Terminal illness includes cases in which a person is at the risk of death and which are likely to cause death, even if the person is not sick.