The dead deserve dignity
By A J Philip
31st August 2012 12:02 AM
A post-mortem is a must in all cases of suspicious and unnatural death. In several countries in the West, autopsy is the rule, not the exception. Performed scientifically, it is the most effective tool in the hands of the investigating agency to pin-point the cause of death because a dead body never tells a lie. In the hands of an expert coroner, the body will tell exactly how the death was caused.
As was mandatory, an autopsy was performed on the body of Geetika Sharma, which was found hanging in her house in a middle class colony in west Delhi. She was a former air-hostess of the now defunct Murli Dhar Lakhan Ram (MDLR) Airlines. Even before the judge could lay his hands on the autopsy report, it was leaked to the Press, which wasted no time in highlighting the findings of the doctor who conducted the post-mortem.
Since the Press relies on such 'leaks' to carry on its onerous job as a watchdog of democracy, it cannot be blamed for reporting it. After all, as they say, news is something which somebody wants to suppress, the rest is just advertisement. What is objectionable about the report is the finding that the 23-year-old woman, who was unmarried, was 'sexually active'. To add insult to injury, it also apparently mentioned that she used to have 'unnatural sex'.
There can be an endless debate on 'unnatural sex', particularly when the Supreme Court is grappling with the question of homosexuality, declared legally tenable by the Delhi High Court. Whatever is done consensually by two adult persons within the confines of a closed room is a matter left entirely to their choice and discretion, though some puritans and moralists may not approve of any action that may not lead to procreation.
If a body has evidence of rape or even sexual intercourse just before death, the information is of paramount importance in the investigation of the case and would, therefore, find a mention in the post-mortem report. There is no such mention in the post-mortem report. Yet, the coroner concluded that she was 'sexually active'. It is a malicious term in the case of an unmarried woman and is used with a purpose.
There has never been a post-mortem report that said about an unmarried man that he had been 'sexually active'. So why should the terminology be used only against unmarried women? Is it because a qualified gynaecologist can make out whether a woman is sexually active?
The fact is there is no way in which a doctor can arrive at the conclusion, unless the woman in question had delivered a baby or had evidence of sexual contact with a man just before death. The absence of hymen is now more natural than unnatural in these days when girls increasingly use bicycles for commuting or exercise, or wear intrusive tampons.
Leave aside the gynaecological factors, what purpose did the report serve in mentioning that she was 'sexually active'? In any investigation of crime, the first line of inquiry is: 'who benefits from the crime?' In this case, who has benefited from the report? It is obviously Gopal Goyal Kanda, who is alleged to have driven her to a point where she found suicide was the only option to get even with her tormentors.
Kanda's lawyers will now be able to argue in the court that she was a woman of loose character, because she was 'sexually active' despite being unmarried. This raises the question: was the report written and publicised with a sinister purpose? Incidentally, the police, which allegedly showed alacrity in leaking the report, could not arrest the former minister for 10 days. Finally, he was allowed to surrender to the police.
All that the police have to find out is whether Kanda had driven her to desperation. For that it is immaterial whether she was 'sexually active'. In the sensational decade-old Abhaya murder case in which two Catholic priests and a nun stand accused, the nun was forced to undergo a 'virginity test' by the CBI. Obviously, the two priests were not subjected to such a test.
What's worse, the findings of the test, written in a language, which can only be described as grotesque, were publicised to discredit the religious woman. In her case, her hymen was found intact, though the CBI attributed it to hymenoplasty, done on her by an expert plastic surgeon. The test was a gross violation of her dignity, both as an individual and as a religious person.
Again, the purpose was to discredit her in public, because a 'sexually active' nun is an oxymoron of sorts and would be considered unacceptable in society. Intriguingly, the police did not care to find out who that surgeon was and in which hospital the procedure was performed — a logical step which could have led to the surgeon being booked for concealing evidence.
The charge against the nun was that she took part in the murder of Abhaya. If they are guilty, they should be punished but why should the police subject her to a test and publicise the findings? It's a pity that venerable bodies such as the Medical Council of India, the National Commission for Women and the National Human Rights Commission have not yet come down heavily against the practice of using post-mortem for character assassination.
When nobody can scientifically and conclusively say by examining women's bodies that they were 'sexually active', doctors who jump to conclusions need to be taken to task. When everyone is entitled to privacy and dignity and can resist forced sex, such entries in post-mortem reports should be rejected outright or expunged by the court — better still if they are not made in the first place. In no case should defence lawyers be allowed to cite such remarks in their arguments.
The right to equality is a fundamental right that every Indian citizen enjoys. The same equality should be manifest in post-mortem reports also. As long as doctors cannot say with certainty that a man is sexually active or not, why make an exception in the case of a woman?
In the US, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) prevents doctors from disclosing sexual details of their patients to anyone, except for medical purposes. Though there are no corresponding laws in India, medical ethics demand that the doctors do not publicise any information that can bring disrepute to a patient in a highly judgemental society. A culture that has an ancient, unbroken tradition of worship of female divinities must treat its dead women with dignity and mercy.
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"To those who believe in resistance, who live between hope and impatience and have learned the perils of being unreasonable. To those who understand enough
to be afraid and yet retain their fury."
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