Legislative enforcement of nonconsenual determination of neurological (brain) death in Muslim patients:a violation of religious rights

Legislative enforcement of nonconsenual determination of neurological (brain) death in Muslim patients:a violation of religious rights

Rady, Mohamed Y.
Verheijde, Joseph L.

English

20170124

Death is defined in the Quran with a single criterion of irreversible separation of the ruh (soul) from the body. The Quran is a revelation from God to man, and the primary source of Islamic knowledge. The secular concept of death by neurological criteria, or brain death, is at odds with the Quranic definition of death. The validity of this secular concept has been contested scientifically and philosophically. To legitimize brain death for the purpose of organ donation and transplantation in Muslim communities, Chamsi-Pasha and Albar (concurring with the US President’s Council on Bioethics) have argued that irreversible loss of capacity for consciousness and breathing (apneic coma) in brain death defines true death in accordance with Islamic sources. They have postulated that the absence of nafs (personhood) and nafas (breath) in apneic coma constitutes true death because of departure of the soul (ruh) from the body. They have also asserted that general anesthesia is routine in brain death before surgical procurement. Their argument is open to criticism because: (1) the ruh is described as the essence of life, whereas the nafs and nafas are merely human attributes (2) unlike true death, the ruh is still present even with absent nafs and nafas in apneic coma; and (3) the routine use of general anesthesia indicates the potential harm to brain-dead donors from surgical procurement. Postmortem general anesthesia is not required for autopsy. Therefore, the conclusion must be that legislative enforcement of nonconsensual determination of neurological (brain) death and termination of life-support and medical treatment violates the religious rights of observant Muslims.

20.2.1

20.2.1; 1.2

brain death [pri]; determination of death [pri]; Islamic ethics [pri]

attitudes to death; cardiac death; government regulation; Koran; legislation; Muslims; neurosciences; organ donation; resource allocation; unconsciousness

death by neurological criteria; disorders of consciousness; nafs; Qur'an; ruh

Journal of Religion and Health2017 October 24:13 p.[Online first]. Accessed:October 30, 2017

Copyright © 2017, The Author(s). Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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53 refs

00224197 (print); 15736571 (online)