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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, February 8: 8220;OF a total of 155 custodial deaths in the state of Maharashtra, 45 were due to hanging, 21 natural and 15 attributed to police action. The vague, and thus dubious, reasons given for custodial deaths include: quot;Fell from the bed, wound, fell on others, disease of abdomen, skin disease, neck wound and Jumped under autorickshaw8217;quot;.
These revelations were made by Dr Amar Jessani, president of a non-governmental organisation Centre for Allied Health Themes CEHAT, as he spoke on 8220;The Rights of Special Patients: Torture victims, HIV positive individuals, prisoners etc.8221; The statistics are the result of a 10-year study conducted by the Karve Institute of Social Sciences, Pune.
Dr Jessani was speaking at a two day workshop on Human Rights and Medical Ethics held at the University of Mumbai on February 7 and 8. The workshop was organised by the Department of Civics and Politics of the University of Mumbai.
Dr Jessani said police officials and defence personnel admit that a certain degreeof torture is normal practice in order to elicit valuable information from the detained person. 8220;Usually, the person who tortures knows where to stop. In fact, custodial death reflects the failure of this person as the entire purpose of torture is defeated if the person dies without giving information.8221;
There are many cases where doctors remain silent despite knowing that torture has taken place. Cases of falsifying or deliberately omitting medical information when issuing health certificates or autopsy reports, are common,8221; he stated.
Dr Jessani stressed that doctors involved in torture are not evil persons, but may be performing these actions under compulsion or threat. It has been suggested that doctors working in prisons must be able to maintain independent confidential records. Medical services in prisons should be kept separate from the prison officer8217;s role of controlling prisoners.
Speaking on the rights of a doctor in an earlier session, Dr Pritam Phatnani had highlighted the importance ofpreserving medical records. 8220;A doctor has the right to keep original records with himself and must only hand over marked and signed copies to patients. If the police insist on taking original documents, he must keep marked and signed copies with himself.8221;
Dr K T Dinshaw, director, Tata Memorial Centre, pointed out that despite the facility of a photo-copy machine, patients still walk away with the original documents. Added medical activist Arun Bal 8220;Nearly 90 per cent of complaints against doctors are instigated by other doctors. Due to a virtual failure in the doctor-patient relationship, confused patients often file complaints based on the stray comments from other medical personnel in public hospitals.8221;
Attacking the needless use of technology and surgical intervention in medical treatment, Dr Manu Kothari, honorary professor of anatomy at KEM hospital, stated that 64 per cent of bypass surgeries have a mere placebo effect. While Kothari termed the present situation as 8220;the angioplasty epidemic8221;,Dr V N Acharya described most ICCUs as status symbols for hospitals. In order to check the growing unethical medical practices, Dr Anil Pilgaokar suggested that private practitioners start displaying a signed certificate at their clinics.
This certificate will list false certificates, sex-determination tests and other unethical procedures which will not be in use at that clinic.
Speaking on organ transplant, Dr Sanjay Nagral, Associate Professor at the KEM Hospital, noted that though successful transplant cases are on the rise, the total number of transplants has not increased as much due to reservations about cadavre transplant among Indians.
On the issue of unrelated organ transplant, Director of Health, Government of Maharashtra, Dr Subhash Salunke informed that the Maharashtra Government has permitted 780 such transplants after detailed interviews with the donors. The interviews are conducted to check that no financial dealings have occurred between the donor and the recipient.
