A Kenyan doctor has donated his body to science, requesting not to be buried when he dies, local Standard newspaper reports.
While explaining his decision, Dr. Cyprian Thiakunu said his family was already aware of his request, and that his body would prove valuable for medical students in practise.
Thiakunu labelled burials as a waste of resources, saying burying bodies deprived medical students a chance to better understand the human anatomy.
The doctor said he too was a victim of a lack of cadavers during his study days.
He said that the University of Nairobi, where he studied, was at times forced to import the bodies from neighbouring Uganda.
According to Thiakunu, Kenya’s former constitution did not allow for one to donate their bodies for such purposes, making it impossible to include it in a person’s will.
He said the new one does have such provisions, and he has now already included it in his will.
The doctor says he’s only returning the favour by donating his body, because he too benefited from someone else’s.
“I should donate my body when I pass on so that it can be used for dissection by others,” he said.
“If I, as Dr. Thiakunu, dissected a human body and that is the reason why I became a medical doctor, why should I not donate mine also to be dissected by another Kenyan to gain that knowledge and be a doctor also?”
In most native Kenyan communities, the dead are buried, and often in their ancestral homes.
