Permission to perform a necessary operation from the patient or his guardian
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Praise be to Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. After that: The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta has reviewed what was sent to His Eminence the Grand Mufti from His Excellency the Executive General Director of Health Affairs at the National Guard, Director of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, in his letter number (1/10682/2009)
dated 9/10/1430 AH, and referred to the Committee by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars with number (2405) and date 11/10/1430 AH. His Excellency asked questions, and after the Committee studied them, it answered as follows: Q1: A child who is eight years old requires urgent medical intervention to save his life. Despite all possible attempts by the medical team to explain his condition to the parents, they continued to refuse to save his life. What must the doctors do?
A1: The doctors must intervene to save the life of this child whose parents refused their intervention to save his life; because their permission is not considered in this case; due to the harm realized by not consenting.
Q2: A university professor who is (39 years old) was diagnosed with acute abdominal pain due to an internal intestinal perforation. The doctors felt the necessity of performing an operation immediately, otherwise the patient's condition would deteriorate and he might die, and there was no possibility of any other treatment. However, he refused the operation after a lengthy explanation by the doctors, and his probability of death is after the will of Allah. The patient is considered to be of full mental capacity according to the psychiatrist who examined him. Do the doctors accept his wish not to have the operation, or do they force him against his will to have the operation by force?
A2: If the situation is as described, the operation is performed for this patient
without his permission; because of the saving of his life and the repelling of destruction from him.
Q3: A wife donated one of her kidneys to her husband who was suffering from kidney failure, and the transplant operation was successful. After two years had passed since the transplant operation, her husband divorced her, and the wife demands the return of the transplanted kidney to her former husband, what must the doctors do?
A3: Her request is not granted; because she is a donor, and her donation to her husband has been completed, and what happened afterwards does not invalidate the donation.
Q4: A young woman who is (23) years old is not fully conscious to give her consent for a necessary operation, and since it is not life-saving to save her life - and it is likely that the young woman will not return to consciousness - her father wants to perform the operation for her, but her husband refuses despite the medical team's attempts to explain the necessity of the operation for her. What must the doctors do?
A4: The doctors must do what they see as realizing the benefit of the patient, and in this case, the father's consent is sufficient, even if the husband does not consent; because his right is dropped due to the obligation to repel destruction from her.
Q5: A woman who is pregnant in her ninth month, needs a cesarean section to save the life of the child, the pregnant woman refuses the cesarean section despite all attempts by the medical team to explain to her the necessity of saving the child's life. What must the doctors do?
A5: The doctors must intervene to save the life of the child and repel the harm
from him, unless there is danger to the life of the mother.
Q6: A man who is (23 years old), not of full mental capacity (Down syndrome) does not understand even the simplest things, his father brought him to the hospital to donate one of his kidneys to his brother who is suffering from kidney failure, the doctor noticed that the young man did not comprehend the reality of what was happening to him. What must the doctor do, does he accept him as a donor?
A6: It is not permissible for the guardian of a minor to donate any of his organs; because the guardian's action is tied to the benefit, and there is no benefit for the minor in this matter, rather there is harm to him.
dated 9/10/1430 AH, and referred to the Committee by the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars with number (2405) and date 11/10/1430 AH. His Excellency asked questions, and after the Committee studied them, it answered as follows: Q1: A child who is eight years old requires urgent medical intervention to save his life. Despite all possible attempts by the medical team to explain his condition to the parents, they continued to refuse to save his life. What must the doctors do?
A1: The doctors must intervene to save the life of this child whose parents refused their intervention to save his life; because their permission is not considered in this case; due to the harm realized by not consenting.
Q2: A university professor who is (39 years old) was diagnosed with acute abdominal pain due to an internal intestinal perforation. The doctors felt the necessity of performing an operation immediately, otherwise the patient's condition would deteriorate and he might die, and there was no possibility of any other treatment. However, he refused the operation after a lengthy explanation by the doctors, and his probability of death is after the will of Allah. The patient is considered to be of full mental capacity according to the psychiatrist who examined him. Do the doctors accept his wish not to have the operation, or do they force him against his will to have the operation by force?
A2: If the situation is as described, the operation is performed for this patient
without his permission; because of the saving of his life and the repelling of destruction from him.
Q3: A wife donated one of her kidneys to her husband who was suffering from kidney failure, and the transplant operation was successful. After two years had passed since the transplant operation, her husband divorced her, and the wife demands the return of the transplanted kidney to her former husband, what must the doctors do?
A3: Her request is not granted; because she is a donor, and her donation to her husband has been completed, and what happened afterwards does not invalidate the donation.
Q4: A young woman who is (23) years old is not fully conscious to give her consent for a necessary operation, and since it is not life-saving to save her life - and it is likely that the young woman will not return to consciousness - her father wants to perform the operation for her, but her husband refuses despite the medical team's attempts to explain the necessity of the operation for her. What must the doctors do?
A4: The doctors must do what they see as realizing the benefit of the patient, and in this case, the father's consent is sufficient, even if the husband does not consent; because his right is dropped due to the obligation to repel destruction from her.
Q5: A woman who is pregnant in her ninth month, needs a cesarean section to save the life of the child, the pregnant woman refuses the cesarean section despite all attempts by the medical team to explain to her the necessity of saving the child's life. What must the doctors do?
A5: The doctors must intervene to save the life of the child and repel the harm
from him, unless there is danger to the life of the mother.
Q6: A man who is (23 years old), not of full mental capacity (Down syndrome) does not understand even the simplest things, his father brought him to the hospital to donate one of his kidneys to his brother who is suffering from kidney failure, the doctor noticed that the young man did not comprehend the reality of what was happening to him. What must the doctor do, does he accept him as a donor?
A6: It is not permissible for the guardian of a minor to donate any of his organs; because the guardian's action is tied to the benefit, and there is no benefit for the minor in this matter, rather there is harm to him.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.