A member of the Board of Senior Ulema (Scholars) and Royal Court Adviser, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Sulaiman Bin Munea, has agreed that brain-dead patients should be removed from medical life-support systems. He said his opinion is based on the Prophet’s Sunnah which urges Muslims to ensure funerals are carried out as soon as possible after a person’s death.
The Sheikh’s comment comes in the wake of a Saudi Heart Association (SHA) statement, issued Friday, which stated that the association does not consider it murder if a brain-dead patient is removed from life-support.
The SHA “does not agree with some doctors’ opinion that removing life-support machines from brain-dead patients, while the heart is functioning, is equivalent to murdering a human, and that, therefore, approving it is erroneous”. Brain death “is a fact recognized by most international medical and healthcare establishments.
Removing life support devices gives hope to dozens of patients around the world who [need] organ transplants, which is their only chance to live after all other treatments have failed”.
Bin Munea said he agreed with the SHA because a brain-dead patient would not benefit from these devices. He agreed to remove them even if the patient’s family refused to do so.
Saudi Gazette