Euthanasia in the Perspective of Islamic Law PDF

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Euthanasia in the Perspective of Shariah Law In Islam, the question of life and death is in the discretion of Allah, SWT and nobody shall have a say in the matter. At the present time, terminally ill persons are offered an alternative way out of their affliction which is through euthanasia as they are rendered unrecoverable according to the medical experts’ opinion. In other words, they can choose to go down the path of an assisted suicide. Any embodiment of a suicidal endeavour is looked down upon by Muslims as it is unlawful and forbidden. However, the question buzzes whether Shari’ah law gives room for rare exceptions. Euthanasia is a term often used in the field of bioethics, which is generally considered a deliberate death, assisted suicide or murder by fatally sick people. Muslims think it is unlawful as any form of suicidal attempt is already illegal in the perspective of Islam, this is because the decree of death is destined by Allah. The natural science's own concept of death describes death as the cessation of all biological activities of an organism. When someone is dying, the brain's work ceases, cardiac arrest takes place. Sometimes a person is not dead or alive but is in a coma or unconscious state where the human being is not able to be alert and usually cannot respond to unpleasant stimuli, sounder or light. Ultimately a comatose displays an absolute lack of awareness and cannot speak, hear, shift or even feel consciously. Therefore, if a person is in a coma state or is experiencing extreme pain due to irrecoverable illness and recovery is completely unlikely, only a lethal injection or removal of a life sustaining machine will help him end his life. That is generally referred to as euthanasia or the killing without grace. Euthanasia is legally introduced by several European countries, but many other states also refuse to fully implement euthanasia. The same was true for religious life and the bulk of the government of the Muslim Kingdom. Nevertheless, Muslim philosophers started to wonder whether euthanasia is really 100% unconstitutional or there is still room in the Islamic judiciary. Muslim cultures around the world have raised many concerns. Euthanasia is also imperative in Islamic studies. Euthanasia is generally known as the patient's burial. This means that euthanasia is supposed to act intentionally in order to terminate a life that relives insupportable misery. Britannica Journal refers to euthanasia as "a procedure or method that brings death or causes them to die by refusing the medication or external steps to be taken to sustain life, suffering from debilitating and incurable illnesses or physical conditions.” It has become a very interesting topic for researchers on the impression of Muslim scholars on euthanasia. As experts in this field classified euthanasia in two types, which are active euthanasia and the other one is passive euthanasia. At the same time, there are two types of euthanasia under both active and passive, which are voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Active Euthanasia is an action by medical professional and someone who deliberately kills the patient by giving lethal injection or increasing dose of painkillers which may eventually be toxic to the patient. It includes the life-ending actions conducted by the patient or somebody else. It is actually has been even more controversial compared to the passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia is criticized by various parties, be it religious, moral, ethical movements, and this has been going on for such a long time.

Passive Euthanasia occurs when the patient dies because the medical professionals either don't do something necessary to keep the patient alive, or when they stop doing something that is keeping the patient alive. For example, disconnecting the feeding tube, not giving life-extending drugs and many more. Voluntary Euthanasia then can be defined as an act or omission conducted by medical doctor or someone else with the proper consent from the patient by giving high dose of painkillers that is actually pretty dangerous to a human being, and maybe by giving lethal medications. In short, the patient simply asking for help with dying and refusing to get burdensome medical treatment, or just simply wanting or deciding to die. Easy to say, it’s still a suicide. In contrast with voluntary euthanasia, involuntary euthanasia is letting the patient die without his consent or permission. This is usually a murder but not always in many cases. This type of euthanasia is conducted with the consent of the family members or may also be from the decision of the medical doctor. Some people take this act as an act of assisted killing, which is homicide. People think that ending the life of a person is not supposed to be the job of any other human being. Now, generally there are positive and negative views on euthanasia. For example, though many people are against the idea of euthanasia, there are still a big number of people who are interested to support it. It is said because everyone has the right to choose their own fate, and instead of letting the patient suffer from the pain of the disease, might as well assist him to end the suffering. Of course, there are different views against the positive ones. Some people said that there are effective pain relief injections available nowadays, so instead of killing oneself, take the medications to endure the pain a little bit more. Another negative view on euthanasia is that it could divide the society apart when the whole euthanasia thing is being legalized. Now, we move to the perspective of Islam. There sure are so many questions being asked regarding this matter. Is it acceptable to the norm of the society? Is it objectionable? In this case, which type of euthanasia, either active or passive, is Islamically acceptable? It can be scrutinized in the light of the Quran and As-Sunnah. As everyone already knows, Islam does not allow killing but dying itself is part of our faith. Everyone is going to taste death, whether they like it or not, but the question is how they die, naturally or in someone’s hand? “Do not take life, which Allah made sacred, other than in the course of justice”. [AlIsra’:33]. Here, we can say that the life of a person belongs to the Lord, the lifespan is already destined, he would not be alive when his time has arrived. “When their time comes, they cannot delay it for a single hour, nor can they bring it forward by a single hour.” [AnNahl:61]. No one dies except with the order of Allah. Islam has advised the followers that they are created by Allah, He is the one who can give life and death to His servants, anywhere and anytime. These words of the Lord keep reminding us about our life and death which is in the hand of Allah SWT and we cannot take it in our hand, or else He will surely not be pleased with us. The Prophet Muhammad SAW said: “Amongst the nations before you there was a man who got a wound, and growing impatient, he took a knife and cut his hand with it and the blood did not stop till he died. Allah then said, “My slave hurried to bring death upon himself, so I have forbidden him Paradise”. Thus, we can clearly see that the type of active euthanasia in the form of voluntary classification is not allowed in Islam.

A physician should never take a patient’s lie as human life is so sacred even if it is at the patient's or the patient’s guardian request. They have to endure the pain and remind them that Allah rewards those who tolerate their suffering. Since active euthanasia or what we call as assisted suicide is clearly not allowed in Islam, could there be some room available about passive euthanasia to be used in Islam? Passive euthanasia is basically an act of withholding treatment or even stopping the medications that keep the patients alive. Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, a popular Egypt scholar, has given a green light for passive euthanasia, stating that it is acceptable and sometimes even recommended, i.e there is nothing wrong with the idea of suspension of medical treatment that is thought to be useless, but the patient still has to receive basic human rights, and pain relief cannot be withheld. Another scholar also has provided his view, Sheikh Muhammad Salid al Mujaddid, on the use of passive euthanasia. He said that if a person was dying from terminal illness and treatment offered was unlikely to be of benefit, there is nothing wrong with not giving the patient any treatment. The patient should not forget to put his faith and trust in Allah and seek refuge in Him, as Allah is the healer and there is no healer but Him....