In the first ever “human cadaver” donation in Meghalaya, renowned artist Moinul Haque Barbhuiya donated his body to North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) before breathing his last, reports said on August 9. “It is the first such donation in Meghalaya and I hope many others would be inspired to emulate Barbhuiya’s noble example,” Dean of NEIGRIHMS, Dr P Bhattacharyya said. Moinul Haque Barbhuiya, 57, died of cancer on August 5 at his Nehu campus residence at Mawlai. The gesture, however, was not free from controversy with one of Barbhuiya’s sisters demanding that the body be buried according to Muslim tradition.
Dean of NEIGRIMS, P. Bhattacharyya said that one of his sisters today came to the institute and wanted to take the body back. “But as the teacher’s wife and daughter had given their consent in writing to donate his body as the teacher had wished, we had kept the body at the institute. But we will consult legal experts,” Bhattacharyya said. In the medical institutes of India in general and those of the North-East in particular, there is a great shortage of human cadavers which are needed by the Anatomy Department of Medical Education for dissection purposes.