By Karen Hebert Bristol

Afghan medical students are robbing graves for skeletons, according to a report by news agency AFP. Medical students in Afghanistan are required to have a skeleton with which to study anatomy and are expected to buy or otherwise get a skeleton themselves. In a country still experiencing extreme post-war poverty, this is financially impossible for most students.

The Japanese government recently donated a number of anatomical models to the University of Kabul, including a female and male skeleton. Although the models were greatly appreciated, a clear shortfall still remains in terms of numbers needed. The shortfall is a legacy of the Taliban regime where all pictures and models of humans were banned. The situation is so bad that some institutes do not possess a single skeleton.

During the civil war between 1992 and 1996, more than 80 000 people were killed. Many of the bodies could only be hastily buried and a large number of these were buried in the west Kabul cemetery. It is here that many of the students have concentrated their efforts.

"First we opened three graves and that was a useless effort--they were too old and the bones had all worn out so we had to open several others," said Mohammed Homayoon, "Then we opened four graves and managed to get four sets of skeletons."

Another student told of how he had looked specifically for a male skeleton, which is considered to be a better anatomical specimen for study. Many of the skeletons were blackened or visibly scarred, a testimony to the tortures that had occurred.

Students had to clean, sterilise, and varnish the bones themselves. Mohammed Shafi told AFP, "My mother came out to the backyard and saw the skull and bones boiling in the pan with this terrible smell and when she saw me and my friend standing there she immediately fainted."

The practice of digging up graves for skeletons is not new in many developing countries. Though it is not the medical student who performs the activity but a staff from medical college performs such activity for a little monetary reward.. Here in Pakistan a medical student can easily get a skeleton for about 2000 Pak rupees (37 US dollars). So students find it very convenient to have their own set of bones for study at home. There are two factors that derive the students to this, less number of skeletons in college and restriction to study them in anatomy museum only. Students wish to study the bones at their homes and hostels, as they want to spend much time in studying them. So the only way to this is to buy a set of skeleton. Sometimes they get the skeleton with some body mass attached to it, and they have to keep it in chemicals for completely dissolving any remaining body or muscle mass.

This is totally an unethical thing and the worst thing about this is that a future doctor, a person of ethics, practices such thing.

I cannot imagine myself excavating a grave to get human remains, i would die of horror. In the face of deprivation, when college could not provide the students with learning resources, the students tried to get it by themselves. Why cannot the colleges do the same? For the ethical reasons? The issue of training the students well to produce good doctors should also be taken in account.The respect for the dead should be weighed with the future of the medical students. Does the reasoning sound too bad or unethical? But the students excavating graves are certainly not dealers 'robbing' human skeleton to sell them for money. I am not for to blame them.

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