Bhubaneswar: Odisha assembly on Wednesday passed the Anatomy (Amendment) Bill, 2012, making the body donation process easy for the donors, the family members after death. The bill will enable the hospitals and medical colleges to use cadavers of persons for anatomical examination, dissection and surgical operation.
The amendment of the bill was necessary as the medical teaching was severely hit in the state due to lack of dead bodies at the laboratory. The cabinet understood the situation and recommended the bill for amendment at the House yesterday.
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Presenting the bill at the House, Health Minister Dr Damodar Rout said that Odisha Anatomy Act, 1975 was passed earlier to obtain the cadavers of unknown persons for research work in hospitals and medical colleges. However, no dead body remained unknown after electronic media highlighted each case. Even the donated dead bodies could not be accepted by the medical colleges due to lack of particular law.
The bill was passed with amendment keeping in view of the forthcoming medical colleges in the state. Both the ruling and opposition have welcomed the bill, which will enable the anatomy teaching at the medical institutions in a smooth way.
On the other hand, the house passed Odisha Staff Nurses (validation of appointment) bill 2012 to protect the services and seniority of contractual/adhoc nurses at the government hospitals. Around 326 staff nurses will get the benefits due to the significant bill.
Thanks to all my friends and activists of Odisha-Rationalist-Society for their long crusade to get this bill passed in Odisha assembly. Now we have some process in place to donate our bodies after death. This is indeed a great news, an important milestone and a step forward towards building a free-thinking and rationalistic world.