In the recent controversy surrounding Pranit More’s comedy shows, a young medical student was seen making distasteful, inhuman comments about a cadaver’s private parts. The mocking was real, and the host and crowd joined her in this egregious act of ridicule on a public platform. As the video clip went viral, many influencers and fellow doctors criticized her, and the concerned hospital is willing to take action against her. The police and cyber police have reportedly filed an FIR against her and are investigating the matter.

Though the person tried to apologize by issuing a video, the damage has been done. Apparently, the Association of doctors are not pleased with the apology and demanded a stricter action against her according to the code of conducts. The situation is not going to die down soon and the problems of the medical student will mount.

In this context, let’s understand what’s the fuss is really about!

After the death of one person, the family donates the body to the medical college for the benefit of the students for anatomy and dissection. It’s the personal will or later decided by the family. Nevertheless, it’s a noble act and the medical students should be grateful for the contribution to the practical study. In medical language, it’s called a cadaver. In other countries, students often don’t get the luxury of dissecting a cadaver as the donations are very few. However, In India, People donate bodies willingly to support the medical studies. In recent years, there’s been a shortage of cadavers in colleges as the donations have been dried up a bit. Considering the gravity of the alleged case and widespread circulation of the clip, there will be a negative impact on the organ and body donation across India, for sure.

As the author comes from an engineering background, he tried to elucidate as much information from the credible medical fraternity about the cadaver. Apparently, there’s a cadaver oath which the 1st year students take before the anatomy class where they are supposed to dissect a cadaver. The cadaver should be dealt with respect and dignity by the medical students. As it’s their first teacher in the real world, where they can learn professional ethics, empathy and humility as the cadaver is the ultimate sacrifice by one dead person. The Privacy and confidentiality of the cadaver should be upheld at any cost as aligned with the moral compass. Even the students are advised against posting anything about the cadaver on the internet or if by chance have to post, then should blur it. It’s just the professional etiquette.

Although, it’s the ideal case. In real world, some students out of curiosity and excitement of seeing a cadaver for the first time, crosses the ethical line. They take pictures, make videos and post on social media for the purpose of fun. It sounds gross to non-medicos, but the medicos being acquainted with the human body, somehow lose the empathy factor. The result is the misconduct of the students who take it as a dark humor and crack jokes among themseleves. Every profession has its fair share of dark humor. But, the important thing is not to spill it in the public, let alone on the Internet. If these allegations against a few doctors are true, then it’s very clear that they have lost the moral compass somewhere down the line. Being a doctor is considered as god by many patients. These type of atrocious behavior doesn’t suit at all to them.

Imagine the cadaver can speak and react to the scenario.

• It would have grabbed the curious, creepy hands of a few students whose brains lie in their knees by icy-cold grip and let them feel a tangible fear upfront.
• It could scream in their ears- ” I’m not for your entertainment. The donation is for the medicine!”
• Imagine it could harass these unworthy ones in spirit wherever they go.

Hypothetical scenario aside, we should deal with the case with utmost importance considering it’s sensitivity and overall picture of the whole fraternity is being maligned by some unprofessional attitude. Imagine the reverse case, if a male doctor would have said such things about a female cadaver. Imagine the uproar! If anyone is willing to let the female medical student go without any strict actions saying she’s a girl, then the gender equality ends here!

Exemplary punishment should be made in this case. Ethics, empathy for others should be taught to these new breed of doctors first. If the organ donation and body donation decrease after this incident, then who’s going to take responsibility for it? The NEET exam should be made thorough so that only deserving candidates get through it. And lastly, medicine is a noble profession, let only the deserving and serious ones enter it. Try to keep the trust of the public intact before some of the students make a mockery of the whole fraternity.