A Misunderstanding

A Misunderstanding

1990 5 May 16 A Misunderstanding (306) A seminar was held in New Delhi under the auspices of the Times Eye Research Foundation on ‘Eye Donation and Religion’. The proceedings took place in the India International Centre on September 6, 1989. The writer too was invited to read a paper on the subject.

During the proceedings of the seminar the programme manager, Mr. A.P. Atri, told us of an incident which bears a lesson for us. His own grandson had died some days previously, at the age of seven. When the time came to perform the last rites, Mr. Atri’s relatives and friends gathered at his house. On seeing the body of the child, one of this friends said, “Atriji, you exhort people to denote their eyes after death, yet I find here that you have not donated your own grandson’s eyes. His eyes are there just as they were before death. “

This objection was based on a misunderstanding. The truth was that after the death of the child, Mr. Atri telephoned the hospital to make his wishes known. A trained doctor then came with all the necessary equipment to extract the eyes. He replaced them with artificial plastic eyes so neatly that it appeared that nothing had been removed.

Mr. Atri’s friend, being unaware of this process mistook the artificial eyes for real eyes. Hence the misunderstanding.

In most cases, mistrust and suspicion are the result of wrong constructions being put upon badly understood facts. Strictly speaking, we should refrain from forming bad opinions of others, especially if we are not in complete possession of the facts. But, in cases where we are required to form an opinion, it is always better to do so only after making a thorough investigation of whatever appears at first sight to be doubtful. It is unethical to form any opinion whatsoever without proper investigation.