NLA monsoon season: Nagaland Anatomy Bill, other new rules introduced

KOHIMA — The Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Tuesday introduced ‘Nagaland Anatomy Bill 2023’ along with other new rules at the ongoing second session in Kohima.

The Nagaland Anatomy Bill, 2023 is a bill “to provide for the supply of unclaimed bodies of deceased and for donation before death by a person of his body or any part thereof after his/her death to hospital and medical and teaching institution or for the purpose of medical education or research including anatomical examinations and dissection”.

Minister of Health and Family Welfare, P Paiwang Konyak, stated that the State government does not have any legal provisions relating to the manner and procedures under which dead bodies that are unidentified and unclaimed, are to be dealt with. There is also a lack of legal provisions to allow voluntary donations of organs and dead bodies, in whole or part.

Keeping in view the increasing need for supply of bodies of deceased persons for medical education and research, including anatomical examinations and dissections, it is considered necessary to create legal provisions for the same, he added.

“The bill seeks to empower the authorised officers appointed by the state government to take possession of the unclaimed dead bodies in hospitals, prisons, or public places, and also for enabling a person before his death, to express an intention, in writing in the presence of two or more witnesses, to donate his body or any part thereof after his death for the purposes,” it stated.

The bill delegates power to the state government to make new rules, said Konyak, adding that the bill will not involve additional expenditure from the consolidated fund of the state.

The act will be called the Nagaland Anatomy Act of 2023 and will be extended to the whole of the State and come into force with immediate effect.

Meanwhile, the other new rules introduced include the ‘Art and Culture Service Rules, 2023’; ‘Nagaland Dental Health Service Rules 2023’; ‘SIRD Service Rules 2023’; ‘Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, for excluded areas, Assam, 2023, in force in the state of Nagaland’; and ‘Nagaland Municipal (Bill) 2023’.

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