Boy Chooses Prayer Over Medicine, Dies

[CosmicPathos]

Also, saving life is obligatory upon us muslims:

"if anyone slays a human being, unless it be [in punishment] for murder or spreading corruption on earth, it shall be as though he had slain all mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind."(QS 5:32)

If you are in health care profession, this "obligatory" thing is slippery slope. You could end up being sued and be handed a certificate of malpractice.

According to modern ethics of medical profession, physician's first obligation is to individual patients. If patients are capable and understand the treatment options and still reject to have the treatment, physicians cannot force them to undergo therapy. In such cases Islamic concept of "obligatory to save life" does not apply because if you will try to save the patient despite them having rejected any desire to receive treatment, you'd probably loose your license to practice medicine.

Seems Islamic injunction of obligation to save life refers in context of emergency medicine where as a physician in NA, you will not be sued if you try to save a life of a patient without knowing their previous desires about living/dying.

Potentially a patient/his/her family with DNR signed can sue you even if you were unaware of it and tried to resuscitate the patient after collapse/shock.

 

[Ali_008]

^^ Nothing is forced in Islam. All we are supposed to be doing is try our best to live according to the Qur'an and Sunnah. Try offering medication but if the person rejects it then you can't make him gulp it against his will. If he rejects now, ask him after some time and relate to him the beauty of staying alive and getting the opportunity of performing good deeds. In simple words, this is how Islamic medical treatment should be in such suicidal cases.

Islam itself is the best medicine in the whole world yet people keep rejecting it. Yet do you see any doctors of deen [The Daee(s)] forcing people to accept Islam? They try as much as they can to show the beauty of Islam to the world but if someone rejects it, it's his/her personal choice.

 

[CosmicPathos]

^^ you are right. Using the word "obligatory", however, makes it seem like shoving it down people's throats. We can perhaps say that in Islam it is "obligatory" on physicians to try to save lives, excepting the cases where patient rejects to be treated. In the latter cases, we should respect patient's desires, and try to explore what might be going on in patient's life which has made them make such a decision. if we suspect depression, we should treat that because then patient is not capable to make a rational decision about life and death.

 

[Ramadhan]

If you are in health care profession, this "obligatory" thing is slippery slope. You could end up being sued and be handed a certificate of malpractice.

According to modern ethics of medical profession, physician's first obligation is to individual patients. If patients are capable and understand the treatment options and still reject to have the treatment, physicians cannot force them to undergo therapy. In such cases Islamic concept of "obligatory to save life" does not apply because if you will try to save the patient despite them having rejected any desire to receive treatment, you'd probably loose your license to practice medicine.

Seems Islamic injunction of obligation to save life refers in context of emergency medicine where as a physician in NA, you will not be sued if you try to save a life of a patient without knowing their previous desires about living/dying.

Potentially a patient/his/her family with DNR signed can sue you even if you were unaware of it and tried to resuscitate the patient after collapse/shock.

I think that ayat is a general injunction, Allah forgives me if I'm wrong.
Of course there are specific situations where you're limited in your capability or by conditions (like what you mentioned) that we are not be able to save live.


wa Allahu Alam.