Click to play videoIn a tragic victory of blind faith and superstition over science and logic that cost a 12-year-old boy his life, his father now lies in jail while his mother is undergoing treatment for schizophrenia.
The boy was killed by his own parents, Ashok and Pramila Malik - both of them doctors in Haryana’s Rohtak - all because a tantrik (quack) told Pramila that she needs to transfuse the boy's blood into the body of his older brother to help him pass his medical exams.
Pramila and Ashok made a cut in an artery in their younger son's neck and tried to transfuse the blood into the older one.
The younger son started losing blood and had to be admitted to a local medical institute where he died.
Ashok is currently in jail while Pramila is in a psychiatric ward diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and is undergoing treatment. Her doctors say it will be a while before Pramila is discharged, and can give her version of this episode.
The question that was brought up on the CNN-IBN show, Face The Nation was: Is superstition winning over science?
Compaired by Sagarika Ghose, on the panel to discuss the issue were Senior Vice President of IMA Dr Vinay Aggarwal, astrologer Sunita Chabra and career counselor Usha Albuquerque.
Astrology with limitations
Since the parents of the child on whom the blood was transfused were doctors - the father was a doctor and the mother was a professor of anesthesia, how could they fall prey to that kind of bizarre superstition?
Dr Aggarwal said that it was unbelievable and disastrous that such an incident had taken place. “Since it has been reported that Pramila is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, for this kind of incident to take place it is only possible if the person who is involved in this act is abnormal, schizophrenic, or suffers from a paranoid behaviour. I do not think that a normal qualified doctor will fall prey to superstition and believe in tantriks,” said Dr Aggarwal.
In India, there are Registered Medical Practitioners (RMP) who don’t have any degrees and but yet they prescribe medicines. So are the checks as to who will be able to prescribe medicines inadequate?
For what can be called a shocking revelation, Dr Aggarwal said that there were no checks conducted. “I have done my graduation 33 years ago and there has not even been one instance when somebody has checked my degree. This is unfortunate that the Indian Medical Association for a long time now is talking about quackery, false practices, tantriks fooling innocent citizens, but the government is a mute spectator. Law-enforcing authorities including the police and health authorities are not doing anything about it and this is very unfortunate,” he said.
Since these are times of uncertainty and every one is emotionally very vulnerable, they are clinging on to things to be sure of including the reliance on stars and astrology. Is it the duty of the astrologer to tell them to stop at a certain limit, to tell them that astrology cannot solve all the problems and ask them to do simple things rather then aspiring for miracles?
Sunita Chabra being an astrologer herself made an interesting observation about how India’s economy was booming and how everybody is willing to do anything to reach to the top. And in the process people were willing to take short cuts, so it was not the superstition that was running away but people’s own greed.
And was that the reason that astrologers and tantriks were tapping into that and asking people to spend money in all kinds of quackery?
Chabra said, “In today’s world everybody is so much in hurry to take a short cut and compromise at every level to reach to the top as a result they are unhappy and compromising their personal happiness. They look out for astrologers or spiritual gurus to give then some short cuts to reach the top.”
However, Chabra emphasised on the very fact that it was not just the duty of the astrologer but also every Indian to realise that they should not compromise on values and personal happiness.
Parents - commanders or well wishers?
The doctors also wanted their older son to be as brilliant as their younger son so they went ahead and did an amateur blood transfusion of a brilliant child to a mediocre child to become clever. So did Usha Albuquerque as a career counselor often see parents putting in tremendous pressure on their children and lose their sanity because of the pressure to succeed?
Usha Albuquerque said that parents could sometimes get obsessed in ensuring that their children succeed.
“A lack of awareness also contributes to the obsession. We are in a country where there are so many opportunities yet parents will insist on pushing them to medicals and engineering. These are the two major careers that are absolutely taking over as these two give them prestige. Sometimes they live out their own aspirations trough their children,” said Albuquerque.
So what was the advice for the hyper-ambitious parents? Albuquerque’s advice was to first find out whether the children were capable of doing what the parents expect then to do.
“The children have their own ideas, interests and abilities to do a lot of other things. As career counselors we try to tell them is that there are other routes to success. They should help and also allow their child to find their own way of success,” said Albuquerque.
Then what was the interface between science and astrology? Patients still went to doctors and tell them that their stars were telling them they needed to have an operation or that they were not ready for a operation. What would be the doctor’s call in this case?
Dr Aggarwal said, “As far as we are concerned we will always ask patients to follow the doctor’s advice. Even upper class citizens are falling prey to superstitions. There are instances of pregnant mothers wanting their child to be born at a certain time and on a certain day as that would be the an auspicious date. This kind of hype is to a certain instance made by the media.”
It was not just the media that was to be blamed but astrology as well because people did get astrologically conscious.
SMS poll results: Doctors kill son: Is superstition winning over science?
Yes: 65 per cent
No: 35 per cent
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.