 INTRODUCTION
HUMAN LIFE
IS THERE A RIGHT TO SUICIDE?
EUTHANASIA - MERCY KILLING
THE FINANCIAL FACTOR
CLINICAL SITUATIONS
INTRODUCTION
Euthanasia gained a legal
foothold in Holland. It went to the ballot box in two states in
America but was defeated. Its lobby is getting more active. Islam
has definite views on euthanasia.
HUMAN LIFE
The sanctity of human life is a basic value
as decreed by God even before the times of Moses, Jesus and
Mohammad. Commenting on the killing of Abel by his brother Caine
(the two sons of Adam), God says in the Qur'an: "On that account We
ordained for the children of Israel that if anyone slay a person
-unless it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land- it
would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone saved a
life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people" (Qur'an 5:32). The
Qur'an also
says: "Take
not life which Allah made sacred otherwise than in the course of
justice" (Qur'an
6:151 and 17:33). The Shari'a went into great detail in
defining the conditions where taking life is permissible whether
in war or in peace (as an item of the criminal law), with
rigorous prerequisites and precautions to minimize that event.
IS THERE A RIGHT
TO SUICIDE?
Not in Islam. Since we did not create
ourselves we do not own our bodies. We are entrusted with them
for care, nurture and safe keeping. God is the owner and giver of
life and His rights in giving and in taking are not to be
violated. Attempting to kill oneself is a crime in Islam as well as a grave sin. The
Qur'an says: "Do not kill (or destroy)
yourselves, for verily Allah has been to you most Merciful" (Qur'an 4:29). To warn
against suicide prophet Mohammad said: "Whoever kills himself with
an iron instrument will be carrying it forever in hell. Whoever
takes poison and kills himself will forever keep sipping that
poison in hell. Whoever jumps off a mountain and kills himself
will forever keep falling down in the depths of hell."
EUTHANASIA - MERCY
KILLING
The Shari'a ( Islamic Law) listed and
specified the indications for taking life (i.e. the exceptions to
the general rule of sanctity of human life), and they do not
include mercy killing or make allowance for it. Human life per se
is a value to be respected unconditionally, irrespective of other
circumstances. The concept of a life not worthy of living does
not exist in Islam. Justification of taking life to escape
suffering is not acceptable in Islam. Prophet Mohammad taught:
"There was a man in older times who had an infliction that
taxed his patience, so he took a knife, cut his wrist and bled to
death. Upon this God said: My subject hastened his end, I deny
him paradise." During one of the military campaigns one of
the Muslims was killed and the companions of the prophet kept
praising his gallantry and efficiency in fighting, but, to their
surprise, the Prophet commented, "His lot is hell."
Upon inquiry, the companions found out that the man had been
seriously injured so he supported the handle of his sword on the
ground and plunged his chest onto its tip, committing suicide.
The Islamic Code of Medical Ethics endorsed by the First
International Conference on Islamic Medicine (Islamic
Organization of Medical Sciences, Kuwait, 1981, p.65) includes:
"Mercy
killing, like suicide, finds no support except in the atheistic
way of thinking that believes that our life on this earth is
followed by void. The claim of killing for painful hopeless
illness is also refuted, for there is no human pain that cannot
be largely conquered by medication or by suitable neurosurgery...".
There is still another dimension to the
question of pain and suffering. Patience and endurance are highly
regarded and highly rewarded values in Islam. "Those who patiently preserve
will truly receive a reward without measure" (Qur'an 39:10). "And bear in patience
whatever (ill) maybe fall you: this, behold, is something to set
one's heart upon" (Qur'an
31:17). Prophet Mohammad taught "When the believer is
afflicted with pain, even that of a prick of a thorn or more, God
forgives his sins, and his wrongdoings are discarded as a tree
sheds off its leaves."
When means of preventing or alleviating pain fall short, this
spiritual dimension can be very effectively called upon to
support the patient who believes that accepting and standing
unavoidable pain will be to his/her credit in the hereafter, the
real and enduring life. To a person who does not believe in a
hereafter this might sound like nonsense, but to one who does,
euthanasia is certainly nonsense.
THE FINANCIAL
FACTOR
There is no disagreement that the financial
cost of maintaining the incurably ill and the senile is a growing
concern, so much so that some groups have gone beyond the concept
of the "right to die" to that oftheR "duty to
die". They claim that when the human machine has outlived
its productive span its maintenance is an unacceptable burden on
the productive stratum of society, and it should be disposed of,
and rather abruptly than allowing it to deteriorate gradually
(Jacques Atalli: La medicine en accusation - in Michel Solomon
'L' avenir de la vie', Coll. Les visages de L'avenir. Ed. Seghers, Paris, 1981, p. 273-275).
This logic is completely alien to Islam.
Values take priority overprices. The care for the week, old and
helpless is a value in itself for which people are willing to
sacrifice time, effort and money, and this starts, naturally with
one's own parents "Your
Lord decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind
to your parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in
your life, say not to them a word of contempt but address them in
terms of honor. And lower to them the wing of humility out of
compassion, and say: my Lord, bestow on them Your mercy even as
they cherished me in childhood" (Qur'an 17:25- 25). Because such caring is a
virtue ordained and rewarded by God in this world and in the
hereafter, the believers don't take it as a debit but as an
investment. In a materialistic dollar- centric community this
logic is meaningless, but not so in the value-oriented God
heeding community of the faithful.
When individual means cannot cover the
needed care, it becomes, according to Islam, the collective
responsibility of society, and financial priorities are
reshuffled so that values take priority over pleasures, and
people derive more pleasure from heeding values than from
pursuing other pleasantries. A prerequisite of course is a
complete moral and spiritual re-orientation of a society that
does not hold to these premises.
CLINICAL
SITUATIONS
In an Islamic setting the question of
euthanasia usually does not arise, and if it does, it is
dismissed as religiously unlawful. The patient should receive
every possible psychological support and compassion from family
and friends, including the patient's spiritual (religious)
resources. The doctor also participates in this, as well, and
provides the therapeutic measures for the relief of pain. A
dilemma arises when the dose of the pain killer necessary to
alleviate pain approximates or overlaps with the lethal dose that
might bring about the patient's death.
Ingenuity on the part of the doctor is
called upon to avoid this situation, but from a religious point of
view the critical issue is the doctor's intention: is it to kill
or to alleviate? Intention is beyond verification by the law but
according to Islam it cannot escape the ever watchful eye of God
Who according to the Qur'an "knows the treachery of the eyes, and all
that hearts conceal" (Quran
40:19). Sins that do not full fill the criteria of a legal
crime are beyond the domain of the judge but remain answerable to
God.
The Islamic Code of Medical Ethics (1981
p.67), states: "In
his/her defense of life, however, the Doctor is well advised to
realize his limit and not transgress it. If it is scientifically
certain that life cannot be restored, then it is futile to
diligently keep the patient in a vegetative state by heroic means
or to preserve the patient by deep freezing or other artificial
methods. It is the process of life that the doctor aims to
maintain and not the process of dying. In any case, the doctor
shall not take a positive measure to terminate the patient's life".
The seeking of medical treatment from
illness is mandatory in Islam, according to two sayings of the
prophet: "Seek treatment, subjects of God, for to every
illness God has made a cure", and "Your body has a
right on you." But when the treatment holds no promise it
ceases to be mandatory. This applies both to surgical and/or
pharmaceutical measures, and, according to a majority of
scholars, to artificial animation equipment. Ordinary life needs
which are the right of every living person and which are not
categorized as "treatment" are regarded differently.
These include food and drink and ordinary
nursing care, and they are not to be withheld as long as the
patient lives.
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