Riyadh: Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Shaikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah Al Shaikh has affirmed that removal of respirators from brain-dead people and babies born with disability is not permissible since their hearts beat naturally.
Addressing a meeting of senior doctors in Taif city, he also said that it is prohibited to force prisoners sentenced to death to donate their organs and treat as brain-dead persons.
"It is right to execute them, but there is no right to cut a part of their organs," he explained. "It is wrong to take some parts of the body of a person sentenced to death and then carry out the death penalty on him. This is not permissible," he added.
Exploitation
The Grand Mufti declared as religiously illegal the attempts made by some doctors to exploit the patients by asking them to undergo unnecessary tests with the aim of making more money.
As for the Islamic opinion on forcing of a pregnant woman to undergo a caesarian operation, he said, "it is not allowed to treat a patient without her permission unless it is necessary to rescue her life or her baby's life".
Regarding abortion, he said that Islamic scholars unanimously agree that it is allowed only if a woman's pregnancy is 40 days or less.
He, however, added that this should be in a very limited manner only in case of fear from negative impacts of this pregnancy".
Asked about medical mistakes which lead to death of patients, he said "an experienced doctor should not be blamed for a mistake he committed intentionally or without any sign of negligence".
