The recent death of a couple in a car in Kano highlights yet again one of our cultures in Nigeria of not wanting to investigate death. For some odd reasons in our society we do not want to conduct full autopsy to find out the cause of death even if the circumstances are unusual and even when it is obvious that there is
some foul play. Not to mention contemplating legal action, this would have been considered a serious sign of faithlessness. We simply rationalise it as God’s wish. Chief among the reasons for this especially in the North to me is the fundamental misunderstandings of Islamic position on such investigation or reluctance to follow its guidance because of our stronger cultural views about death. As result homicides go undetected, avoidable deaths continue to occur and culprits go scot free.
It is understandable that emotions around death are strong and people dislike that their loved ones are not giving the ‘appropriate’ rites including it been done in time. There is also pressure from family and friends to leave things with God and not heeding to such counsel would have been judged as sign of weakness of faith or some form of disbelief. Everything around death presents a very strong need for closure and the longer it is investigated the more severe the emotional burden. However, again it is this same reason that should necessitate appropriate investigation to determine the cause, culpability and preventive measures. I think we can achieve true closure and the death would not have been in vein if it serve to prevent another’s loss.
How many homicides occur from road traffic accidents, professional negligence, industrial errors, environmental damage etc. without us knowing the cause and where fishy anyone being held to account? I will highlight some high profile cases that only became apparent to us when someone from outside had to wade in for us to understand what happened and for ‘victims’ of one of this cases to have some hope of restitution. The drug trial in Kano by Pfizer during the 1996 epidemic of meningitis that resulted in death and some impairment among children came to our attention only by December 2000, when The Washington Post published the result of investigation going on in America. Similarly, the worst lead poisoning disaster in recorded history, killing approximately 400 children in March 2011 alone came to our attention only because some doctors from the humanitarian organizations Medecins Sans Frontieres ("MSF"), also known as Doctors Without Borders decided to investigate. We would have simply continued to bury the death and do what we do for the impaired for only God knows how long.
I find the belief that investigating the cause of death as a sign of lack of faith absurd and the reluctance to hold people ( lay or professional) and institutions to account when liable even worse. I am not an Islamic scholar, however, I find it hard to reconcile why God will prescribe punishment for homicide and even detail compensation and how such should be dispensed with not wanting to hold the guilty party responsible. Investigation therefore becomes a matter of necessity since you cannot ascertain blameworthiness without it. My reading of this is that there is nothing wrong in investigating a suspicious or ‘mysterious’ death. It is mysterious only because we fail to investigate. If we do not learn from events, I do not see why this should not happen again. Or maybe we just wait for MSF to unravel this one too!
Investigation of death is the bread and butter of medicine. A lot of the medical technologies we take for granted today come about because some people try to find out what is killing them and do something about it. To me there is no difference between taking medicine for a fatal illness and finding out the cause of death of someone in order to prevent similar event happening to someone else, same with prosecuting negligence to avert another person’s grief.
In the case of ‘Man and woman found dead in car’ by Dailytrust (23/05/2012), even though medical knowledge have availed us with the means of knowing with greater degree of certainty why the couple died, a lot of what we know are mere speculations. We probably will never know for sure what really happened because we are not going to do a proper investigation. The excuse that the bodies are already decomposing so we cannot do proper autopsy is not acceptable. There is at least one theory that the death could have resulted from carbon monoxide poisoning. I am not a pathologist but surely two days after death there are chemical test that can at least exclude this. Leave the bodies aside, what about the car itself? Was any test done to assess the composition of the air in the car when the bodies were found? Are there investigations about other possibilities of other toxic emissions from the car? What are the similarities between the two recent incidents? I am not referring to the similarities that most women will want to observe! Lol! What if it is something we put in our cars every day, maybe some unwholesome car fragrance? There are lots of possibilities, but with intent and professional handling this can be unravelled and possibly save some lives in the future.
Generally, I think we need to be more serious about trying to understand things that are killing us.
It is understandable that emotions around death are strong and people dislike that their loved ones are not giving the ‘appropriate’ rites including it been done in time. There is also pressure from family and friends to leave things with God and not heeding to such counsel would have been judged as sign of weakness of faith or some form of disbelief. Everything around death presents a very strong need for closure and the longer it is investigated the more severe the emotional burden. However, again it is this same reason that should necessitate appropriate investigation to determine the cause, culpability and preventive measures. I think we can achieve true closure and the death would not have been in vein if it serve to prevent another’s loss.
How many homicides occur from road traffic accidents, professional negligence, industrial errors, environmental damage etc. without us knowing the cause and where fishy anyone being held to account? I will highlight some high profile cases that only became apparent to us when someone from outside had to wade in for us to understand what happened and for ‘victims’ of one of this cases to have some hope of restitution. The drug trial in Kano by Pfizer during the 1996 epidemic of meningitis that resulted in death and some impairment among children came to our attention only by December 2000, when The Washington Post published the result of investigation going on in America. Similarly, the worst lead poisoning disaster in recorded history, killing approximately 400 children in March 2011 alone came to our attention only because some doctors from the humanitarian organizations Medecins Sans Frontieres ("MSF"), also known as Doctors Without Borders decided to investigate. We would have simply continued to bury the death and do what we do for the impaired for only God knows how long.
I find the belief that investigating the cause of death as a sign of lack of faith absurd and the reluctance to hold people ( lay or professional) and institutions to account when liable even worse. I am not an Islamic scholar, however, I find it hard to reconcile why God will prescribe punishment for homicide and even detail compensation and how such should be dispensed with not wanting to hold the guilty party responsible. Investigation therefore becomes a matter of necessity since you cannot ascertain blameworthiness without it. My reading of this is that there is nothing wrong in investigating a suspicious or ‘mysterious’ death. It is mysterious only because we fail to investigate. If we do not learn from events, I do not see why this should not happen again. Or maybe we just wait for MSF to unravel this one too!
Investigation of death is the bread and butter of medicine. A lot of the medical technologies we take for granted today come about because some people try to find out what is killing them and do something about it. To me there is no difference between taking medicine for a fatal illness and finding out the cause of death of someone in order to prevent similar event happening to someone else, same with prosecuting negligence to avert another person’s grief.
In the case of ‘Man and woman found dead in car’ by Dailytrust (23/05/2012), even though medical knowledge have availed us with the means of knowing with greater degree of certainty why the couple died, a lot of what we know are mere speculations. We probably will never know for sure what really happened because we are not going to do a proper investigation. The excuse that the bodies are already decomposing so we cannot do proper autopsy is not acceptable. There is at least one theory that the death could have resulted from carbon monoxide poisoning. I am not a pathologist but surely two days after death there are chemical test that can at least exclude this. Leave the bodies aside, what about the car itself? Was any test done to assess the composition of the air in the car when the bodies were found? Are there investigations about other possibilities of other toxic emissions from the car? What are the similarities between the two recent incidents? I am not referring to the similarities that most women will want to observe! Lol! What if it is something we put in our cars every day, maybe some unwholesome car fragrance? There are lots of possibilities, but with intent and professional handling this can be unravelled and possibly save some lives in the future.
Generally, I think we need to be more serious about trying to understand things that are killing us.
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