Personal Autonomy in Health Settings and Shi’i Islamic Jurisprudence

The rationale of this paper has been to high-light the conflict between the patients’ right to personal autonomy and medical and social compromise.

Respect for personal autonomy in decision-making is one of the four ethical principles in medical circumstances. This paper aims to present evidence that can be considered good exemplars in the clarification of the ethical viewpoints of the western and Shi’i Islamic perspectives on this issue. The method followed was originally a search in international indexing services in April 2016. Our findings point towards various controversies on individuals’ autonomy lead to different decision making outcomes by health workers in both different traditions. We concluded that although Shi’i Islamic jurisprudence does not seem to allow for personal autonomy in the sense it is understood in a western context, evidence indicates that Shi’i Islamic jurisprudence respects personal autonomy.

Bibliographic Information

Title: Personal autonomy in health settings and Shi’i Islamic Jurisprudence: a literature review

Authors: Zohrehsadat Naji, Zari Zamani, Sofia A. Koutlaki and Payman Salamati

Published in: Med Health Care Philos. 2017 Sep;20(3)

 Language: English

Length: 7 pages

Personal autonomy in health settings and Shi’i Islamic Jurisprudence