Dead who serve a medical cause bring to life a debate on ethics

Mumbai: Two years before her controversial remarks about a cadaver sparked widespread outrage, KEM Hospital’s third-year medical student Sejal Pawar stood before a camera to champion the cause of body donation.

As part of a short documentary by the hospital, Pawar is heard saying: “I have a member in my family who is going to donate their body, and I was reminded of him. I was very respectful of the cadaver because we learn from them.”Pawar has been sent on compulsory leave for 15 days. But her momentary lapse of judgment has cast a cloud over decades of work by the anatomy department in collaboration with civil society groups that has resulted in 764 body donations across 4 BMC-run medical colleges in the last 10 years.Of these, a total of 183 donations have reached KEM since 2019. Among them were the bodies of 66-year-old Lina Morey and 72-year-old Prachi Biwalkar, who died of cancer in 2023 and 2025, respectively.Morey’s son, Atul, a Parel resident, who happened to be part of the same documentary as Pawar, says every time he passes by KEM, he thinks of the institution as his mother’s very own resting place. “She was well ahead of her time, very progressive and wanted her body to be for the benefit of science,” Morey says.

Hemant Biwalkar, Prachi’s husband, pledged his organs (in the event of brain death) and his body to science back in 1987, and his wife did the same in later years. “It is a matter of pride for us that our deaths shall serve humanity in ways that are just beyond our imagination,” he says.Outside KEM’s dissection hall, a large poster displays a six-point “cadaveric oath” required of every incoming student. “I will treat you with respect and dignity of the highest order,” the oath reads, “as you are my first anatomy teacher.”Lina was a clerk at a BMC school, while Prachi was a clerk at a private school in Grant Road. In their death, both went on to be ‘anatomy teachers’ at the city’s top medical college.At large, most donations happen because of volunteer groups who spread awareness about organ and body donation. They educate the public, have pledge forms filled, and then act as the primary contact between hospitals and the grieving families.A KEM anatomy professor, who oversees the process of body donations, says the department received calls from some of these groups asking about the recent controversy. “We were clear that this does not reflect on the hospital and it is the person’s own opinion,” the professor says.Purushottam Pawar, from the Federation of Organ and Body Donation, says the point of hesitation for donors is their religious beliefs, followed by—what he describes as caused by misinformation rather than fear—the concern that the body will not be treated with dignity.

“But one incident can never replace trust of decades. We hold no grudge against her [Sejal] and neither do we want her to be punished. On the contrary, we believe this is her chance to take up the cause of organ and body donation,” he says.Anatomy professors across medical colleges vouch that the staff, the faculty, and the students over the years have been deeply mindful of the significance underlying each cadaver donation.

“They are made fully aware that this is a selfless act by a family so that society gets better doctors,” says Dr Ashwini Jadhav, anatomy department head at JJ Hospital.But doctors say donation numbers have dropped post-COVID even as more and more pledge forms are being filled. For instance, KEM received 56 bodies in 2019, 16 of which were unclaimed. Last year, they received 30 bodies (including 4 unclaimed); and in 2024, the count was 21 bodies.The National Medical Commission (NMC) recommends a cadaver-to-student ratio of 1:10. This, for a batch of 250 students, hospitals require 25 bodies annually for an anatomy class.Unclaimed bodies are now far fewer in the city too due to cellphone penetration and better identification techniques. “Other departments could perform surgical workshops on unclaimed bodies. But now even they require a handful of donated bodies annually, “ says KEM’s anatomy professor.Hanging just beside the cadaveric oath poster at the hospital is another large poster bearing a poem, seemingly written from the perspective of a cadaver well-aware that its purpose is to be dissected. It begins with a simple plea to the living: “Handle me with a little love and care.”