“Merciful death” is defined as the killing that aims to save a terminally ill patient, and it is also called “expedited death” or death that puts an end to a life full of pain and misery. Medicines or injections have appeared that serve the purpose and contribute to ending the life of a patient who does not hope to be cured by painless means. Lawyer Salah Rabie says: “Saudi Arabia has confronted this idea with complete rejection and has banned it, and has considered this behavior criminal behavior in law and order.” The true religion commanded us to preserve the soul and forbid killing it, and all its provisions came to preserve the five purposes: self, religion, money, mind, and offspring. النصوص الشرعية تجريم الاعتداء على النفس «وَمَنْ يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًا مُتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاؤُهُ جَهَنَّمُ خَالِدًا فِيهَا وَغَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَعَنَهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُ عَذَابًا عَظِيمًا»، سورة النساء، وقوله تعالى «وَلا تَقْتُلُوا النَّفْسَ الَّتِي حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ»، ويضيف المحامي ربيع، أن جميع القوانين والتشريعات في Most countries in the world do not recognize euthanasia for any reason, and those who perform it must be punished. Saudi law places several obligations on the practicing physician. Including his commitment to obtaining medical permission for any medical procedure, and defined it as the approval of the patient, his representative or guardian of the health facility and health practitioners on the procedures necessary to preserve and restore health. Article 19 of the Law on the Practice of Health Professions states, “No medical work should be performed on a patient without his consent, or the approval of his representative or guardian if he does not consider his will. As an exception to this, the health practitioner must in cases of accidents, emergencies, or critical illnesses that require Immediate or necessary medical intervention to save the life of the injured person or to save one of his organs, or to avoid serious harm resulting from delaying the intervention and it was not possible to obtain the consent of the patient or his representative or his guardian in a timely manner. One of the conditions is to end the life of a medically terminal patient, even if it is based on his request or the request of his relatives. The perpetrators of this act, who are licensed to practice health professions in accordance with Article 28 of the same system, shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months, and a fine not exceeding 100,000 riyals, or one of these two penalties.
The killer doctor!
A member of the Council of Senior Scholars, Sheikh Abdullah Suleiman Al-Manea, explained in response to a question in the Fatwas program about the permissibility of a doctor using a needle to hasten the death of a hopeless person, that this act is forbidden and not permissible according to Sharia, and the doctor is considered a murderer. And Al-Manea added: “You, O doctor, are not more merciful and kind than the Lord of the servants, and if a lawsuit is filed against the doctor, a document of retribution may be issued by the doctor.”
For his part, Professor of Postgraduate Studies at the College of Sharia at Qassim University, Dr. Khalid bin Abdullah Al-Musleh, explains that there are several pauses about the rule of euthanasia, mercy killing, or compassionate killing: the first, euthanasia and its concept, which is ending the life of a medically terminal patient, with a positive action It leads to his death, such as giving him a high dose of a lethal drug, a specific drug, a lethal injection, or the like, and that is based on his explicit or implied request, or the request of someone acting on his behalf, and whether it is carried out by a doctor or another person out of pity, for the purpose of punishment. From his excruciating and unbearable pain, that is why he was called merciful.
A crime against oneself is forbidden
Dr. Khaled Al-Musleh explains the hadiths contained in the prohibition of felony against the soul, the most prominent of which is the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, who said: “It is not lawful to shed the blood of a Muslim who bears witness that there is no god but God and that I am the Messenger of God, except in one of three cases: a life for a life, and the married adulterer. And the one who deviates from the religion and abandons the group.” This is a statement about killing with a right, and it is not what is called euthanasia, and among it is what is also in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Jaber – may God be pleased with him – that the Prophet – may God’s prayers and peace be upon him – delivered a sermon during the Farewell Pilgrimage, and he said in the greatest gathering during the era of prophecy: “Your blood and your money is forbidden.” You are as sanctified as this day of yours, in this month of yours, in this country of yours. The reason for the inference: the strong emphasis on the sanctity of infallible blood, and from the consensus: Al-Qarafi’s saying, may God have mercy on him: An animal that is not eaten if it reaches an extent of illness that is not hoped for, should it be slaughtered to facilitate it and relieve it from the pain of pain? What I have seen is the prohibition, unless it is from what is smart to take its skin, like lions.
Sinful aggression
The second pause – according to Dr. Khaled bin Abdullah Al-Musleh, proceeds to euthanasia and its ruling, as it is not hidden from the insightful person that one of the major purposes of the Sharia is self-preservation, so there are texts in the Great Qur’an and the purified Sunnah confirming the sanctity of the human soul and the necessity of preserving and preserving it and that it is not permissible to attack it Unjustly, and for this reason, there is no disagreement among the scholars that committing to doing everything that leads to the death of the soul, which is called euthanasia, is forbidden killing and a sinful aggression in which the ugliness of the felony is not absent from the fact that the motive behind it, and the impetus for it, is compassion and mercy for the patient and relieving him from the trouble of pain and disease. It is a form of premeditated killing because there is an intent to kill when initiating the killing process, and for this reason what is called euthanasia is prohibited by Shari’a. And do not kill yourselves, for God is merciful to you. By right (and the killing of a sick or hopeless person is killing without right. Killing is a right defined by the Shari’a with an unambiguous limit, and it does not include what is called euthanasia.
Health: unacceptable style
The citizen, Abdullah Ayed Al-Mutairi, refuses to use the needle of mercy on one of his family or those close to him, or to remove medical devices, indicating that whoever does so will live the rest of his life under remorse if he allows them to do so. He is able to revive the dead and heal the sick. Hope in God, the Merciful and Kind to His servants, is much stronger than the needle of mercy or hastened death. Speaking about removing resuscitation equipment for a brain-dead patient, Dr. Fadi Qarah, a resident in the Emergency Medicine Department, confirmed that such a decision is up to the family, and this is recommended by the doctor in charge of the patient's condition after confirming that he is completely brain dead without hope. According to the Ministry of Health, on the lips of the Assisting Agency for Communication, resorting to the use of what is called the needle of mercy or accelerated death, in health hospitals with patients who do not hope for recovery, because this is not used in all hospitals of the Ministry. With regard to the treatment of health facilities with cases that do not hope to be cured, each case is dealt with separately according to the diagnosis, and in accordance with ethical, legal, legal, and medical standards.
The perpetrator of the crime
People are unanimously agreed that this should be prohibited in the case of a human being, even if his pain is severe, and Ibn Qudamah – may God have mercy on him – pointed to something similar in his saying: The people of knowledge are unanimous that a free Muslim is to be led by his killer, even if he is cut off, without senses, and the killer is of sound character. , or was the other way around. Likewise, differences in knowledge and honour, wealth and poverty, health and disease, strength and weakness, old and young, power and marketability, and similar attributes, did not prevent retaliation, according to consensus, and this is indicated by generalities. The Fiqh Council’s decision was issued; By prohibiting the felony on the life of a hopeless patient in a positive way, as it stipulated that “Ending the life of a hopeless patient in a positive way is something that is rejected by Sharia and laws, and whoever assaults the patient is considered a murderer who requires retribution from him. And the one who causes it participates in the sin of this crime, whether by authorizing those who proceed to kill from among the patient's guardians, because no one has the right to authorize such a thing, neither the patient nor his guardians.
Muhammad Al-Wasmi (Mahd Al-Dahab) @alwasmi_mh
