Girl ends life to donate eyes to dad
Ashis Poddar, TNN Jul 4, 2011, 12.15am IST
NADIA: For days, Mumpy would listen quietly as the elders discussed how only an eye surgery could save her father's vision and a kidney transplant her brother's life. But both surgeries were beyond the family's meagre means. So, Mumpy hit upon a plan, which to her 12-year-old mind seemed the answer to all troubles. She would kill herself, which would save the dowry, too, and her organs would give her loved ones back their lives.
Mumpy did stick to her plan. But the suicide note in which she had scribbled down her wishes was found the day after she was cremated.
The incident took place in Dhantala's Jhorpara on June 27. Her father's and brother's ailments had left Mumpy Sarkar, a Class VI student, anxious. One of the kidneys of her brother Monojit, a Class XI student, was damaged and the other was getting weak. Father Mridul Sarkar, a daily wager, was also gradually losing his eyesight.
"The family had approached the local MLA for help. We had decided to grant them some money for the boy's treatment. But the tragedy happened all of a sudden," said Dhantala panchayat pradhan Tapas Tarafdar.
Mumpy had taken elder sister Monica, a Class VIII student, into confidence and had urged her to commit suicide as well for the "cause". When Mumpy told Monica about her plan on the morning of June 27, the latter laughed it off and left for school. Their father was away at work and mother Rita had gone to fetch rice.
"Finding herself alone at home, Mumpy consumed Thiodan, a pesticide. Then, she ran to meet her father, who was about half a kilometre away. She told him that she had dreamt that someone had poured poison into her mouth and her stomach ached. Her alarmed father took her to a local pharmacy immediately where she was given some medicines. But her condition worsened soon and she had to be rushed to the local Baranberia hospital. From there, she was referred to Anulia hospital. But the doctors declared her brought dead," Tarafdar said.
It was only the day after her cremation that Mumpy's father found a note on her bed. Addressed to her mother, the girl requested her to make use of her eyes and kidney for the treatment of her father and brother. This left the aggrieved family inconsolable. "We were too late in understanding the feelings of a very sensitive child," Mridul wept. Mumpy's mother has gone into shock.
What a horrible thing. I hesitate to make an ideological point from this tragedy, but it's worth noting that this nightmare brings home the truth that human beings are ends, not means. This child's belief that it was moral to kill herself to give her organs to her family was based on her terrible misunderstanding of her own intrinsic worth.
She was the gift to her family. And she was so much more than her organs. May God rest her soul, and console her poor family.
Mike wrote:
ReplyDelete"May God rest her soul, and console her poor family."
Amen.