DONATING YOUR DEAD BODY.

DONATING DEAD BODIES TO MEDICAL COLLEGE:

                                                               Of late many old couples whose children stay abroad and are not interested in Hindu culture of last rites of their parents have decided to donate their dead bodies to medical colleges. There are many legal and financial aspects involved in this new mode of donating the dead body.

                                           First, lots of money is saved by the party, plus no formalities of throwing ashes at Allahabad.The point here is when the person is dead his rights on his body ceases to exist. His or her son or daughter or relatives can decide further plan of action. Now a day’s people are living longer with diseased and cancerous bodies hence the medical students will not find a normal anatomy in the dead bodies because it’s fit for pathological laboratories not anatomy dissection halls?

                                          With 3D images the dissection system will be obsolete very soon. So where we stand? Knees are artificial, heart with pacemakers and stents and by pass would not have the normal anatomy for the first MBBS students. There are millions of Indian undergoing dialysis and have under gone kidney transplants, in that case what student would learn?

                                There are two vested interests in donating bodies. One the celebrities show their greatness and poor and middle class people save money. Coming to donation of eye its only the corneas which are used nothing else but lay public think it’s the whole eye which is implanted and a blind man could see the world once again. With rise in macular degeneration the blind population is totally helpless.

This article is not to dissuade people not to donate body but should realize the basic facts of body donation. The fumes from dead bodies are highly carcinogenic, that we must remember.

Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy

Ex-Joint Director-SAIL