17 December 2020 12:00 am
Justice Minister Ali Sabry, in his keynote address to Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka, asked how could one come to term with forceful cremation of bodies in the light of scientific evidence that the burial of them lead to the spread of coronavirus is nonscientific.
In his address, he quoted Professor Malik Peiris, the world-renowned Pathologist and Virologist, and Chair Professor of Microbiology and Tam Wah-ching Professor of Medical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, who stated that the claim that the burial of dead bodies of COVID-19 victims could lead to the spread of coronavirus is nonscientific.
“Then of course I am familiar with this business of burial. So let me be clear. I am quite happy to be cremated with or without Covid. But to imagine, first and foremost, the scientific evidence in terms of infectiousness at the time of death. The fact that the virus cannot survive after death and then if you wrap the body in some impermeable wrapping. I understand people are also talking about putting some chemical in and you bury the body 6 feet underground unless you bury the body right into running water,” he said.
“In light of that, how do we in this country come to terms with the fact we are forcefully cremating bodies?” he asked