Analysis of Bvt Practices by Traditional Practitioners from Islamic Ethics Perspective

Abstract

Bee venom therapy (BVT) is one of the ancient traditional treatments. BVT is believed as capable to cure a variety of diseases despite of having significant negative impacts upon its usage. However, the BVT method has raised questions as Islam forbids the killing of bees as a result of getting its venom, as well as the use of venom as a treatment method. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the BVT practices from the standpoint of Islamic ethics. Data collected through a triangulation of document analysis and unstructured interviews with three BVT practitioners. The findings found two major ethical issues of BVT. First, the practitioners are not aware that killing bees is contrary to Islamic ethics and the BVT should be the last option to be used if there is no other treatment works for the diseases. Second, several practitioners are not qualified to carry out medical procedures due to the lack of medical knowledge and unawareness about the risk of the treatment for a certain group of people. Therefore, this study suggests BVT practitioners, especially Muslim to follow Islamic ethics when performing BVT to reduce any possible risk.