What is the Islamic judgment about euthanasia or killing a hopeless patient? If a person suffering from an illness wants to die, does it affect his/her faith? Or is it regarded as committing suicide?
Dear Brother / Sister,
Just as killing oneself (suicide) is forbidden according to Islam, so too is it forbidden to end a person’s life, who has got no hope of recovery or suffers severely, which means euthanasia, even though the person demands it himself.
However, it is stated that there are two conditions under which it will be permissible for a person who lives dependant on critical care devices such as a respirator to be saved from them. These conditions are as follows:
A- When the person’s heart and respiration system have totally stopped and specialized doctors have decided that it is impossible to recover any more.
B- When all functions of the person’s brain have stopped and specialized doctors have decided that it is impossible to recover and the brain has already started to die.
When those conditions listed above are realized, the patient’s critical care devices can be turned off.
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