I woke to a short, brutal headline: a 10‑year‑old took his mother’s body alone for an autopsy after she died of HIV. The image that lodged in my chest was not only of a child moving a closed bag or a wrapped body — it was the image of a society that, for a moment, left a child to carry an adult weight.
What I feel first
I write in the first person because this sort of story presses on things I care about: dignity in death, the safety of caregivers and practitioners, and the lingering, toxic power of stigma. My immediate reaction was sorrow, then an urge to understand how this could happen — and how we can make sure it never happens again.
The quiet facts that matter
I will not name the child or his mother. Names are not the point; the circumstances are. What matters here are three connected failures:
- A failure of community and family support so a child was left to handle an adult task.
- A failure of institutional process or communication that allowed a minor to be alone with a death that required official handling.
- The ongoing failure around stigma — people avoided the family, or systems assumed risk rather than offering help, because the cause of death was HIV.
These failures are avoidable.
What autopsy practice actually tells us about risk
There is a persistent myth that bodies of people who died with HIV are “dangerous” in ways that require avoidance. The science, and modern practice, is clearer: in properly equipped mortuaries following universal precautions, the risk of transmission from a cadaver is extremely low. Good, evidence‑based guidance has existed for decades and is explicit about protective equipment, safe technique, and disposal protocols GUIDELINES FOR AUTOPSY IN HIV POSITIVE CASES and professional guidance such as that summarized by pathology organizations and practitioners reiterates that refusing an autopsy because of HIV status is discriminatory and not justified by the evidence.The dead can save millions. Autopsy for AIDS treatment.
Public health and forensic literature also show that postmortem testing can reveal previously undiagnosed infections and that, with correct procedures, autopsies are important both for answers in individual cases and for broader epidemiology and prevention efforts (Postmortem Testing for HIV, HBV, and HCV: PubMed summary).
So the science is clear: safety comes from systems and procedures, not from hiding bodies or leaving families to fend for themselves.
Where the system fails children
When a child is the one to carry a body — literally or figuratively — several alarm bells should sound.
- Child protection: minors are vulnerable and should not be responsible for procedures that require legal, medical, or forensic expertise.
- Communication breakdown: hospitals, coroners, police, and families must coordinate to ensure a respectful, lawful handover of remains.
- Stigma and isolation: fear of contagion or moral blame is often why neighbors, even institutions, withdraw when help is most necessary.
This means we need both procedural guardrails and a humane social default: help first, shame never.
Practical steps we must demand and build
I believe practical, achievable changes would prevent repetitions of this heartbreak:
- Clear protocols that prevent minors from being alone with a body — enforced by hospitals, mortuaries, and police.
- Rapid support teams (social worker + counselor + liaison officer) dispatched whenever a death involves stigma or vulnerable survivors.
- Training and mandatory adherence to universal precautions in every mortuary so staff cannot refuse services on the basis of HIV.
- Public information campaigns to reduce fear about postmortem handling and to explain how safety is ensured.
- Legal clarity and pathways for families to request fast autopsies or transfers without being blocked by discrimination.
These are not radical; they are administrative and moral commitments.
Stigma is still the silent killer
There is a cruel irony: while antiretroviral therapy has turned HIV into a manageable chronic condition for many, stigma remains stubborn. That stigma can make people hide, avoid, or abandon. It can turn a routine forensic process into an ordeal for survivors.
If a child walks alone to an autopsy table, we must ask: who turned away? Who was silent? What fear or prejudice made help unavailable?
A personal note — what I carry away
I have written before about how societies treat their most vulnerable: the elderly, the dying, and children left without safety nets. This story is a painful reminder that technical knowledge (how to handle an infectious death) is only half the battle. The other half is moral: neighborliness, institutional courage, and the refusal to let stigma dictate care.
If we want to honour the dead and protect the living, we must do both better. We must make the mortuary a place of practice and dignity, not the place where a child’s loneliness is exposed.
What you can do today
- If you work in healthcare or administration, review your protocols for minors and for deaths involving stigmatized conditions.
- If you are a neighbor or friend, offer to sit with a grieving family or call local social services when you see isolation.
- If you are an advocate, press for mandatory training and anti‑discrimination enforcement in mortuary services.
Small acts — a phone call, one visit, one signed policy — can prevent a child from ever bearing that burden again.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
Any questions / doubts / clarifications regarding this blog? Just ask (by typing or talking) my Virtual Avatar on the website embedded below. Then "Share" that to your friend on WhatsApp.
Get correct answer to any question asked by Shri Amitabh Bachchan on Kaun Banega Crorepati, faster than any contestant
Hello Candidates :
- For UPSC – IAS – IPS – IFS etc., exams, you must prepare to answer, essay type questions which test your General Knowledge / Sensitivity of current events
- If you have read this blog carefully , you should be able to answer the following question:
- Need help ? No problem . Following are two AI AGENTS where we have PRE-LOADED this question in their respective Question Boxes . All that you have to do is just click SUBMIT
- www.HemenParekh.ai { a SLM , powered by my own Digital Content of more than 50,000 + documents, written by me over past 60 years of my professional career }
- www.IndiaAGI.ai { a consortium of 3 LLMs which debate and deliver a CONSENSUS answer – and each gives its own answer as well ! }
- It is up to you to decide which answer is more comprehensive / nuanced ( For sheer amazement, click both SUBMIT buttons quickly, one after another ) Then share any answer with yourself / your friends ( using WhatsApp / Email ). Nothing stops you from submitting ( just copy / paste from your resource ), all those questions from last year’s UPSC exam paper as well !
- May be there are other online resources which too provide you answers to UPSC “ General Knowledge “ questions but only I provide you in 26 languages !
No comments:
Post a Comment