In Pictures: Following the journey of 'silent mentors' who donated their bodies to science

Sunday Times journalist Calvin Yang and photojournalists Kua Chee Siong and Mark Cheong documented the journey of medical cadavers - those who donated their bodies to education and research - over the course of almost a year.

Updated

Published

Oct 06, 2019, 02:18 PM

Medical students during a suturing class at the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, where they close the incisions on the cadavers, known respectfully as "silent mentors", before the bodies are cremated, on June 25, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Wayne Ng, a second-year medical student from Nanyang Technological University's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, working on Mr Hardial Singh's body during a suturing class, on June 25, 2019. This year, some 300 students, including about 10 dentistry and 40 medical students from NTU, took the elective at NUS. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

A medical student using a suturing needle to suture the incisions on a "silent mentor" at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine anatomy hall before the body's cremation on June 25, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Associate Professor Ng Yee Kong, coordinator of the Silent Mentors Programme, taking out a body from the mortuary at the back of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s anatomy hall on Aug 2, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

First-year medical students leaving the anatomy hall after reciting the Anatomy Student’s Oath on Aug 16, 2019. They were asked to unzip the bags, place their left hands on the cadavers and raise their right hands to take a pledge to treat them with respect. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Madam Sudesh Kumari, the wife of Mr Hardial Singh, bowing low before a portrait of the late pioneer botanist who had donated his body to science, on Aug 30, 2019. His body was cremated 554 days after he died of throat cancer. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Associate Professor Ng Yee Kong (middle, holding mic), coordinator of the Silent Mentors Programme, thanking family members and friends of the silent mentors for the sacrifice before the sea burial at Changi Point Ferry Terminal on Aug 3, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Associate Professor Ng Yee Kong, coordinator of the Silent Mentors Programme, paying his last respects to a silent mentor before releasing the cremated remains in a sea burial on Aug 3, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Mr Gino Hardial Singh scatters his late father's remains into the waters on Sept 7, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Madam Sudesh Kumari holding back tears as she watches her son Gino scattering the remains of her husband Hardial Singh into the sea on Sept 7, 2019. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

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