Odisha Assembly passes the Odisha Anatomy (Amendment) Bill, 2012

Updated on: Friday, February 22, 2013

Medical Colleges and research institutions in Odisha can now use cadavers of unknown persons for therapeutic use and anatomical examination, besides receiving donation of body by a person before death.

This was made legally possible after Odisha Assembly passed the Odisha Anatomy (Amendment) Bill, 2012.

Health Minister Damodar Rout said, "The bill needed the Assembly's nod as medical colleges were facing problems in arranging bodies to impart medical education."

Stating that difficulty in obtaining bodies affected the study of anatomy, the minister said the state presently has four privately run medical colleges, besides three state medical colleges. A number of medical institutions were also in the pipeline, he said.

"If bodies are not available for educational purposes in medical institutions, teaching will certainly suffer," Rout said, adding the state Assembly passed the amendment bill allowing the authorities to use unclaimed bodies for the purpose of education.

He said states like Maharastra and Karnataka have already incorporated provision relating to donation of body by a person before his death for use in medical education.

"We, therefore, amended the Odisha Anatomy Act, 1975 to enable the medical college authorities receive donation of bodies for use in education purpose," he said.

The Assembly also passed another Bill - The Odisha Staff Nurses (Validation of Appointment) Bill, 2012. "Passing of this bill ensured regularisation of jobs of 326 staff nurses working on adhoc basis for 15 years," Rout said.

These 326 nurses were appointed by the health and family welfare department to meet the urgent needs of certain government health institutions.

Odisha Assembly passes the Odisha Anatomy (Amendment) Bill, 2012

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