When a family in Kerala found a way to channel its pain, it touched the larger community and paved the way for potential societal change. The death of 10-month-old Aalin Sherin Abraham, a week after she was critically injured in a car accident near Kottayam, might have gone largely unnoticed but for her family’s decision to donate her organs, making her the youngest organ donor in the state. Importantly, the Kerala government recognised the significance of a gesture that went beyond the customary definition of humanity and sent out a larger message of social awakening. It accorded a state funeral to Aalin, creating a powerful image of the family’s sacrifice and honouring a short life that gave others a chance to live even as it ended.
The State honour was not merely symbolic. It issued a call to action that could give a fillip to Kerala’s organ donation programme. For the record, the government has been striving to boost organ donation numbers, especially cadaveric donations, but continues to face difficulties in getting its own hospitals to identify brain deaths and persuade families to consent. Since 2012, government hospitals in Kerala have recorded just 58 donations out of 397 statewide. Overall, there has been a slight improvement. Cadaver donations touched 25 in 2025, the highest in nine years, yet the figure remains well below the 72 recorded in 2016 and the 76 the year before. On a positive note, organ donation pledges rose sharply in 2025, surpassing 10,000. Even so, Kerala lags behind many other states, particularly its southern counterparts, in both donations and pledges.
Kerala hopes to narrow this gap by holding up little Aalin as an example. The state has rarely hesitated to set trends in social indicators, enabling its people to attain levels of social and cultural advancement that others aspire to. Once again, Kerala is attempting to lead by recognising an infant organ donor as a deserving hero. At the same time, the family’s sacrifice invites society to introspect. It is a call for a response that reflects a commitment to humanity, and a poignant reminder that an end need not be final but can become a new beginning, one that sustains the values of empathy, care and compassion.