Attitude of Doctors towards body donation in India.

Dr. Baishakhi Koley; Dr. Ujwala Bhanarkar; Dr. Shashank Durshetwar

Volume : IX, Issue : VIII, August - 2020

Attitude of Doctors towards body donation in India.

Dr. Baishakhi Koley, Dr. Ujwala Bhanarkar, Dr. Shashank Durshetwar

Abstract :

The altruistic act of body donation has emerged over centuries but there are still considerable discrepancies among countries regarding procurement of human body for education and re-search purpose. In most of the countries body donation is governed by laws and ethical framework with well established voluntary body donation programs to utilize donated bodies an important source of cadavers for anatomical study and education. In contrast, there are countries where unclaimed bodies and a few donated bodies are availa-ble for dissection purpose. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding whole body donation among medical professionals in India. A cross sec-tional study was conducted thorough out India, among medical doctors. The questionnaires were distributed to the doctors via mail. It was ensured that participation in the questionnaire based study was voluntary. Only 448 individuals returned the consented complete question-naire. This study revealed that the medical professional who preaches the benefits of body donation mostly, surprisingly fails to apply it on themselves or among their family members. Total 160 (35.7%) of the doctors among the participants agreed to donate organs only and among them only 30 (6.7 %) doctors are ready for whole body donation. Hindrances from psychological, cultural or religious view point may act in unwillingness towards body dona-tion. Thus basic changes in attitude, belief towards the body or organ donation programmes must be implicated in educating medical students and professionals. Multi-focused awareness programs should be conducted to increase awareness among general people.