Daily Times

Eminent Islamic scholar Mufti Taqi Usman said that patients should not be placed on ventilators for unlimited time if there is no hope of their recovery and attendants should follow the advice of doctors about their patients’ health and well-being.

“Extraordinary measures should not be taken for the treatment of a patient where it is known that it would definitely enhance the sufferings of a patient but cure is unlikely”, Mufti TaqiUsmani said while speaking on “End of Life and Palliative Care: An Islamic Perspective”, at concluding day of Karachi Con’18 of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) which was held at a local hotel on Sunday.

Two-day Karachi Con’18 was the city’s biggest gathering of medical professionals, practitioners, researchers and medical students which was attended by over 2000 participants from public and private health facilities, medical universities of the country, research institutions, various emerging issues and challenges facing the medical fraternity came under discussion at the conference.

On the occasion, 11 leading nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and institutions which are serving in the country including Health and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS), National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD), SINA Health and Education Services, Patient Aid Foundation, Indus Hospital Transfusion Services, Baqai Institute of Dialectology and Endocrinology (BIDE), Bait-ul-Sakoon Cancer Hospital, Omair Sana Foundation, Dua Foundation, Prevention of Blindness (POB) Eye Hospital Karachi and Alkhidmat Foundation were acknowledged in Healthcare Awards.

Speaking on the occasion, Mufti TaqiUsmani said that the medical profession can become a mode of worship of Almighty Allah if a doctor aims to alleviate the sufferings of the sick. He clarified that while getting treatment of any disease is not a mandatory obligation (farz) in Islam, rather it is a sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) to get treatment. Patients should not put themselves in pain and choose difficult treatments where chances of recovery and cure are minimal.

Mufti TaqiUsmani also urged PIMA to educate doctors against the use of illegal and immoral practices of prescribing unnecessary medicines and investigations for monetary benefits. The renowned Islamic scholar further said Pakistan was rich in herbs and plants which had extraordinary medicinal properties and called for conducting research on these herbs and plants so that people could have cost effective treatment of incurable diseases and other conditions.

To a query he said that apart from life-threatening conditions, haram substances like opioids could be prescribed by doctors to relieve pain of critically ill patients. He added that Islam allowed careful use of addictive substances for the relief of suffering, which are otherwise not allowed for healthy people.

Dr. Atif Waqar, palliative care expert from Aga Khan University Hospital said that controlling pain in patients with cancer not only helped in minimizing their sufferings but it also provided them a chance to be close to their Creator in the last days of their lives. He maintained that morphine, an extraordinary drug, which relieves pain of terminally-ill patients and helps difficulty in breathing in terminal cases, should only be prescribed by the experts with knowledge and command over its usage.

Karachi Con’18 Chairman DrShamvil Ashraf also raised several issues regarding pain management and palliative care, use of limited resources on the treatment on incurable patients and use of drugs to minimize the sufferings of the patients while Pro. Junaid Patel, Prof Hafeezur-Rehman and Dr.Ahmer Hamid also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Daily Times, October 22^nd 2018.