ABSTRACT
Introduction: The ever-increasing technological advances of Western medicine have created new ethical issues awaiting answers and response. The use of genetic therapy, organ transplant, milk-banking, end-of-life care and euthanasia are of paramount importance to the medical students and need to be addressed. Methods: A series of searches were conducted of Medline databases published in English between January 2000 and January 2017 with the following keywords: medical ethics, syllabus, Islam, jurisprudence. Results: Islamic medical jurisprudence is gaining more attention in some medical schools. However, there is still lack of an organised syllabus in many medical colleges. Conclusion: The outlines of a syllabus in Islamic medical jurisprudence including Islamic values and moral principles related to both the practice and research of medicine are explored.
Subject(s)
Students, Medical , Schools, Medical , JurisprudenceABSTRACT
Abortion has been largely avoided in Muslim communities. However, Islamic jurists have established rigorous parameters enabling abortion of fetuses with severe congenital abnormalities. This decision-making process has been hindered by an inability to predict the severity of such prenatally-diagnosed conditions, especially in genetic disorders with clinical heterogeneity, such as spinal muscular atrophy [SMA]. Heterogeneous phenotypes of SMA range from extremely severe type 1 to very mild type 4. Advances in molecular genetics have made it possible to perform prenatal diagnosis and to predict the types of SMA with its potential subsequent severity. Such techniques will make it possible for clinicians working in predominantly Muslim countries to counsel their patients accurately and in harmony with their religious beliefs. In this paper, we discuss and postulate that with our current knowledge of determining SMA types and severity with great accuracy, abortion is legally applicable for type 1 SMA