A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Muslim Scholarship on the Issue of Euthanasia

Abstract

“Life with health is one of the blessings of Allah the Almighty. The disease is a part of life. In the contemporary developed age, the immense scope of biomedical technology is affecting seriously deceased and hospitalized patients. Because such type of mechanical means has been invented they can continue the heartbeat of brain dead patient for a long time. So the question arises in which situation a hospitalized patient and his relatives can be permitted to remove these costly mechanical means. The end of life concerning issues like Persistent vegetative state, costly mechanical devices, and treatment of major diseases becomes a reason for suffering, distress, and tension for the common man. So the question arises what should someone do to tackle this type of issue being a Muslim to gain success in this world and hereafter? What is the opinion of shar‘īah regarding terminally ill patients about whom the doctors have declared the disease of him is incurable if their treatment can be stopped in the context of Euthanasia or can the treatment of the patient be discontinued to allow death to take its natural course? So I send my research questions to several scholars, Dār al-'Iftā's, and Fiqh councils of different schools of thought to analyze the view of contemporary Muslim scholarship on the issue of Euthanasia and its related matters in and outside Pakistan through different mediums like email, post and by hand. So two of them referred to the books to consult for concerned points of view: Dār al-Taqwa Lahore and Dr 'Umar Ḥasan Kāsuly(Brunei Dar Salam) others have provided the answers according to their best knowledge.”