MEDICAL ETHICS FROM AN ISLAMIC POINT OF VIEW
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Abstract
The Qur’an, the primary source of Islam, claims to have neglected nothing in the Book. Islam as such asserts to be an all-encompassing religion, guiding Muslims in all the aspect of life from personal to social, mundane to spatial as well as, theoretical or applied. In certain issues the original sources of Islam viz the Qur’an and Sunnah provide the explicit guidance while in others it is implicit. The medical ethics in Islam falls in the latter category. The aim of the present paper is to identify and highlight the guiding principles of medical ethics in Islam viz-a-viz its original sources. It is also to delineate the distinction of Islamic perspective on ethics. It will be a literature research and the methodology followed will be descriptive and analytical.
Article Details
References
A I Padela, “Islamic Medical Ethics: A Primer”, Bioethics, Volume 21, Number 3 2007, pp 169-178.
Ibid.
According to Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ‘the field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Philosophers today usually divide ethical theories into three general subject areas: metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Metaethics investigates where our ethical principles come from, and what they mean. Are they merely social inventions? Do they involve more than expressions of our individual emotions? Metaethical answers to these questions focus on the issues of universal truths, the will of God, the role of reason in ethical judgments, and the meaning of ethical terms themselves. Normative ethics takes on a more practical task, which is to arrive at moral standards that regulate right and wrong conduct. This may involve articulating the good habits that we should acquire, the duties that we should follow, or the consequences of our behavior on others. Finally, applied ethics involves examining specific controversial issues, such as abortion, infanticide, animal rights, environmental concerns, homosexuality, capital punishment, or nuclear war.’ http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/
Abdul Sattar Abu Ghuddah. “The Governing Principles Of Islamic Ethics In Medicine” https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9781786340481_0012
Ibid.
(Qur’an 75:14).
The Four Principles, originally devised by two American philosophers and bioethicists Beauchamp and Childress in their textbook Principles of Biomedical Ethics, are considered by many as the standard theoretical framework from which to analyse ethical situations in medicine. The four principles are: Autonomy – The right for an individual to make his or her own choice; Beneficence –The principle of acting with the best interest of the other in mind; Non-maleficence – The principle that “above all, do no harm,” as stated in the Hippocratic Oath.; Justice – A concept that emphasizes fairness and equality among individuals. These 4 bioethical principles have been legitimized by Muslims jurists as falling into the sphere of Islamic law and have also been supported by Qur’anic verses (Qur'an 3:104, 16:90 and 17:70). They have subsequently become the foundational spirit underlying the Oath of the Muslim Doctor and, thus, dictate the conduct between a Muslim physician and his or her patient. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_bioethics).
According the following article the particular set of principles are not something new but only one of the latest formulations of age-old common sense principles. It is therefore concluded that these principles are already being applied in Islamic traditional and cultural societies. S. Aksoy & Abdurrahman Elmali. “The Core Concepts of the ‘Four Principles’ of Bioethics as found in Islamic Tradition.” Medicine and Law 21(2):211-24 · February 2002.
R.M. Gleave. (2012). “Maḳāṣid al-Sharīʿa”. In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill.
Abdul-Majid Al-Najjar (2006). The Objectives of Shari’a, with New Dimensions (Maqāsid al-sharī‘ah bi-ab‘ād jadīdah). Beirut: Dar Al-gharb Al-Islami, 207.
Usul-ul-fiqh is the science that identifies the sources of fiqh-law and also lays down rules for weighing these sources against each other in cases of conflict.
The paper was presented at an International Seminar on “Principles of Biomedical Ethics: Islamic Perspectives” in Doha, Qatar during the period 5-7 January 2013, organized by the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE).
Al-Qur’an, 55:7-9
Al-Qur’an, 10:23
Al-Qur’an, 5:32
Al-Qur’an, 3:185
Al-Qur’an, 36: 77-79
Al-Qur’an, 6:151
Al-Qur’an, 17:31
Al-Qur’an, Al-Shuara. 26: 78-85.
Abdul Sattar Abu Ghuddah. “The Governing Principles Of Islamic Ethics In Medicine”
For details see V Rispler-Chaim, “Islamic Medical Ethics in the 20th Century”. Journal of Medical Ethic. 1989. 15, 203-208. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1375827/
A I Padela, “Using the Maqasid al-Shariah to furnish an Islamic Bioethics: Conceptual and Practical Issues.” Bioethical inquiry 16, 347-352(2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-019-09940-2.