Friday 23 June 2017

Organ India-Body Donation For Research

Organ India is one of the largest NGOs working in the field of medical science and organ transplantation. It has been creating awareness as well as facilitating organ donation for the needy patients. But this is not the only kind of donation that is needed by the world, there is another kind of donation which is mainly used for the purposes of higher education and advanced research; it is the whole Body Donation for Anatomy research, in which the body is taken up by the institutions for research and the person or family has no say in the matter where, when or how the body will be used.

Body Donation is a huge decision when it comes to giving up the rights to the body after expiration, but it is also a right one to make, especially if it is meant to save lives, even if that means that the body won’t get last rites. And it is not just a modern thought, it has been witnessed in the ancient stories where it was not only praised but also worshiped. The biggest precedent of this noble action is Dadhichi Rishi, who gave up his body for saving innocent lives from the wrath of evil.



Dadhichi Rishi was himself a medical practitioner and was an expert in various skills (related to surgery and operations), but he is well-known for giving up his body to make a weapon that could be used by ‘devas’ to get rid of the evil ‘asuras’. If we go deep in the symbolic representation of the tale, we can see that we are in the grip of diseases and disorders (evil) and get rid of our severe health problems, we also need people kind and courageous enough to be able to donate their bodies for greater good, in this case, being an essential element in the education, research, and development of medical sciences.

Body Donation for research is taken up by many medical institutions for medical training and technological studies on the body, all over the world. But being a culturally and traditionally Orthodox country, it is not as easy in India as it is in some other parts of the world. That doesn’t mean that there are not people who want to donate their bodies, however, there is a majority that doesn’t want to the body to be mutilated after death, which puts them in a position where they just want to follow their last rites for the body and let it rest in peace. For that purpose, there are many organizations working to create awareness about the importance of organ donation and whole body donation. A forerunner in this line, Organ India also facilitates Whole Body Donation for those who want to help in the development medical science, even after they are gone.