Medical Ethics in Perspective of Islamic Teachings: An Analytical Study

Abstract

Summary: Islam as a universal religion, presents a comprehensive and practical system of ethics for the entire humanity in every field of life. Medical ethics is one of the most important components of this extensive ethics system. Islamic medical ethics is the approach of dealing with and handling the healthcare practice and process according to the Islamic moral system and legislative sources (primarily ‘The Quran’ and ‘Hadith’). It is also adopted and promoted by several international organizations. Islamic ethics endorses the basic principles of biomedical ethics, i.e. Beneficence, non-maleficence, confidentiality, justice, truth-telling, autonomy and informed consent, which have been mainly derived from the “Hippocratic Oath”, with some additions and modifications.  Moreover, Islamic teachings present some additional moral values over these basic ethical principles. The present manuscript aims to concisely highlight the evolution and history of bio-medical ethics, briefly describe its basic concepts and focus on the influence of teachings, principles and characteristics of Islam on this important aspect of medical practice. In the end, some important relevant topics such as the general responsibilities of the doctor, protection of life, legal status of treatment and status of treatment with prohibited substances, in the light of Islam, are also discussed briefly.

Keywords: Medical ethics, Hippocratic Oath, basic principles of ethics, Islamic perspective.