GIVE OF YOURSELF GENEROUSLY IN ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE

A few months ago, I got a mail from a 14-year-old girl. She was extremely happy to see the world for the first time and be able to write a mail. She especially thanked me because she was seeing the world with the eyes of my philosopher and guide Dr Zaifa Ashraf, who died at Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital, London. She donated her body to the medical college with a conviction that every part of her body would be utilised. My professor was a non-believer. But she loved the mankind.

Humans are so obsessed with the body that even after one dies, he/she mustn’t go in a ‘profane’ or ‘sacrilegious’ manner, so there must be the funeral rites, or else the ‘soul’ will never be in peace. Why should you or anyone else bother as to what would happen to the body once the person goes forever? All religions ask us to be helpful to the mankind. The devout keep talking of the ideals of their faiths, but will not even allow doctors to take away the eyes of their near and dear ones even if they wanted to donate. “God wants to see you intact,” is their refrain. Jean Paul Sartre’s equally famous partner Simone de Beauvoir’s dead-body was handed over to the hospital in Paris she breathed her last. Her last words were, “Doctor, it’s a non-believer’s trifling gift to medical science.” It wasn’t a trivial gift. She set an exalted precedent. Follow suit if you too have the courage of conviction. Inner Voice comprises contributions from our readers. The views expressed are personal Innervoice@hindustantimes.com