Clinical Applications of Maqasid al-Shari’ah in Healthcare Services

Abstract

One of the main Islamic ethical principles is to save life. Another main principle of Islamic ethics is to preserve the honor of current and future generations. In addition, the rights of making free choices to maximize the intended benefits and gains in life are also granted to everyone, as long as moral agents are mature and mentally sound. Ethics consists of values that are set to assist in the search for balancing between the demands of making free choices in life and preserving the sanctity of life. Islamic ethics teaches the healthcare values such as autonomy and beneficence, but these values are upheld as long the sanctity of life and its honor are observed. The search for balancing between the demands of prolife and that of prochoice in healthcare settings is guided and governed by the principles of the ultimate aims of the Islamic divine law, known as maqasid al-shari‘ah. The paper uses analytical method and aims to present an outline of the Islamic clinical ethics, with the focus on the applications of maqasid al-shari‘ah in healthcare services. Besides the literature review, the paper highlights the basic contents and fields of both healthcare and objectives of the Islamic law. As the relationship between maqasid al-shari‘ah and healthcare practices covers wide area of knowledge, this paper aims for analyzing clinical applications of the shai‘ah objectives. The merit of the paper is that, it uses original sources of the Islamic shari‘ah law, and relates it to eight selected areas of clinical practices, which are among most common in today’s healthcare practices. Other areas of clinical applications are addressed in different papers of the author. Conclusions drawn from these analyses are illustrated at the end of the paper.