Alevoor Dinesh Kini/ENS

Udupi, Feb 26: Recall Munna Bhai asking his accomplice `Circuit’ to get a body to dissect and he in turn packing a live body into a gunny bag, in the box office hit Bollywood film Munna Bhai MBBS.

The fiction reflects the seriousness of the need of dead bodies for study. First semester MBBS students during the study of Anatomy, undergo studies in physiology (normal functions of body parts) and bio chemistry (chemical composition of body tissues and body fluids).

So, dead bodies become their most important learning tool, without which learning medicine, surgery cannot be completed.

The Anatomy department of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, relies upon voluntary body donors and unclaimed dead bodies for the purpose of teaching and also for organ transplant. Sometimes, the decomposed bodies will also be made use of.

Since 1989, as many as 180 persons have walked in and voluntarily pledged their bodies at the Department. Of which, 13 dead bodies have been procured and used in teaching. According to Professor and Head of the Department of Anatomy Dr Narga Nair, their institute requires a bare minimum of 25 bodies per year, just for teaching purpose.

“When we dissect a body, different student strikes at different part of a body. One may be interested in lungs, another in bones and yet another in kidneys. A student learning surgery gets an opportunity to practice on the body,” Dr Nair adds.

The Department is networked with PHCs, doctors, police and also with some NGOs to get more number of unclaimed bodies. In addition, it is also planning to store the bodies for long time in less temperature. The bodies so procured will also be embalmed through chemical process, for multiple use.

Dr Nair wants the people to walk in and voluntarily pledge their body for a noble cause. “A dead body helps for medical research and in studying the structure of a body. As, many parts of the dead body like lungs, kidneys, eyes, bone, bone marrow can be transplanted on multiple patients, a person, even after his death, can give life to many others and contribute in neutralising the organ rackets. If required, relatives will be given a part of the dead body (finger, thumb etc) for performing religious rights,” she adds.