Flying transpacific on the 747 for a long time at NWA we used to take people home to die, usually the Phillipines being the ultimate destination..And the program worked that the patient had a block area of about 5 seats laid down in a hospital bed config.....The doctor "clearances" also had a do not resusitate (spelling error) order included. So the net effect if the person expired or more likely started to expire we did absolutely nothing about it...We would chug along our merry way and deliver the deceased to the land that they wanted to die in....The protocol was to NOT have a physician declare the patient dead...Until that person was where he or she got to destination....Maybe Delta got a similar "clearance" .......

I was siding with this woman until I read that (1) they called the media almost as soon as the airline said no to them and (2) they are now considering a lawsuit. Some people just have to get in their 15 minutes of notoriety. Next time I want to fly First Class, I'll try this same trick. I'll cry and carry on in front of everybody and the cameras. I'll have my own Facebook page and also tweet every few minutes.

Terminally ill Seattle woman arrives in S. Korea, ending airline ordeal | KING5.com Seattle

Gee, I wonder what the defense strategy will be? You don't think they'll try any delaying tactics, do you? :D

I once heard that air crews are requested to not say someone has "died" but "absence of vital signs" or something along those lines. Reason being if someone dies on board the aircraft must be quarantined. Any truth to this?

that's odd... and here I am sitting in their First Class lounge because they bumped me from Business to First for no apparent reason....

The reason is because legally only a medical doctor can determine death, not even a trained paramedic can pronounce death, only the absence of "vital signs" and that is why the declaration of death is "on arrival" when somebody passes away on an ambulance. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't even say absence of vital signs if you are not a trained medical professional because they can come back and really nail you for making that determination, rather just limit the report as the individual being unresponsive; declare an emergency, descend, land and let the emergency responders deal with it.