- 著者
-
鎌田 繁
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.15, pp.29-46, 2019-03-31
Islam takes a negative position against suicide, because this is considered a grave violation of the divine right to determine the life span of human beings. On the other hand, martyrdom, in which people dare to engage in fierce battles against religious enemies and lose their own lives, is highly praised and so much valued that they may be entitled to enter Paradise without any further conditions. Euthanasia, which is widely discussed now in the global setting especially in the context of medical ethics for patients with incurable diseases, is also an important subject of argument for the present day Muslim religious scholars and medical personnel.With consultation to the Qur’ānic text and the Prophetic Traditions (ḥadīth), religious scholars discuss whether a certain action is allowable or not in Islam. When they consider euthanasia, they refer to previous judgments made in the cases of suicide and martyrdom, since euthanasia has not been treated as an independent theme in Islamic law. From Qur’ānic sanctions and Prophetic examples they have drawn a conclusion acceptable to a large majority that such passive euthanasia as stopping life-support treatment (and letting the patient be under the divine will) may be allowable. However, such active euthanasia, as hastening the patient’s death by drug injection, may not be allowed. Frequent reference to the classical normative texts in discussion of modern problems shows that Islam functions as the basis of social moral standards, and as a common frame of reference for members of the community.