Withdrawing or Withholding Treatment

Authors

  • Chamsi Pasha Hassan Department of cardiology, King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital
  • Albar Mohammed Ali Department of Medical Ethics, International Medical Center

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31344/ijhhs.v1i2.11

Keywords:

Withdrawing treatment, withholding treatment, do-not-resuscitate, medical ethics, Islam, ICD deactivation

Abstract

Muslims believe that all healing comes from God, so they have the obligation to search out medical care and right to receive appropriate medical treatment. Islam considers disease as a natural phenomenon and a type of tribulation that expiates sin. Unfortunately many elder patients with chronic illness spend their last few weeks or months in hospitals. Life support is not required if it prolongs the agony and suffering associated with final stages of a terminal illness. The decision to withhold life support from a patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) is a modern medico-legal issue. When considering end-of-life decision making, both withholding and withdrawing life support are considered to be ethically and legally equivalent. Islamic law permits withdrawal of futile treatment on the basis a clear medical decision by at least three Physicians.

International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 01 No. 02 July’17. Page : 59-64

Downloads

Published

2018-01-11

How to Cite

Hassan, C. P., & Ali, A. M. (2018). Withdrawing or Withholding Treatment. International Journal of Human and Health Sciences (IJHHS), 1(2), 59–64. https://doi.org/10.31344/ijhhs.v1i2.11

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2017)

Section

Review Articles

License

Authors who publish in the International Journal of Human and Health Sciences agree to the following terms that:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant International Journal of Human and Health Sciences the right of first publication of the work.

  2. Creative Commons Licence
    Articles in International Journal of Human and Health Sciences are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY-4.0.This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
  3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  4. Authors are permitted to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as greater citation of published work.