Don’t take part in Kelantan’s hudud, G25 urges Muslim doctors

The Kelantan assembly recently passed the amendments to the Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993, paving the way for hudud to be implemented in the state. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, April 7, 2015.

A group of retired top Muslim civil servants have urged Muslim doctors not to perform punishments, such as amputation and stoning that are part of the Kelantan Shariah law, as the state government moves to make hudud a reality.

The G25, who have been campaigning for rational discourse of religious laws in Malaysia, said the ethical principles that guided every doctor were in tandem with the principles upheld by Islam.

The principles were enshrined in the Hippocratic Oath every doctor swore to and in four common basic moral commitments – respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, G25 said.

“It should, therefore, leave no doubt for Muslim doctors that partaking in amputation, stoning and the death penalty not only contravene their professional ethical principles but also that of Islam,” the group said in a statement.

The G25’s statement follows an April 2 claim made by a member of the Kelantan hudud implementation committee that some doctors have come forward to offer their services to enforce the law.

The Kelantan official, Dr Azhar Abdullah, said the Muslim doctors would temporarily leave the medical profession in order to help Kelantan enforce its Shariah punishments safely.

This includes severing limbs, a punishment which is prescribed for those found guilty of theft under the Shariah Criminal Enactment II 1993 (Amendment 2015).

Other punishments include stoning to death for those guilty of zina (adultery) and crucifixion for those guilty of causing death during a robbery.

The Kelantan government is trying to get parliamentary approval to enforce the enactment which is currently being blocked by federal laws and the constitution.

The state, through PAS MPs, intends to table a bill in the present parliamentary sitting to remove those legal roadblocks.

In the statement today, the G25 said it would be almost impossible for any doctor to perform any of the punishments in the Kelantan enactment without breaking the four moral commitments of their profession.

The moral commitment for autonomy requires that doctors consult their patients and get their agreement before acting on them, a process that is unlikely to occur in the Kelantan law.

It is also a doctor’s moral obligation to be beneficent, which means being merciful, kind, charitable and to act in the patients’ interests which include preventing or removing possible harm.

“This principle goes hand in hand with non-maleficence which is derived from a Latin phrase that means ‘first, do no harm’, one of the fundamental principles of medical ethics throughout the world,” the group said.

“As stated plainly by the director-general, the oath that doctors take is to heal and not to do otherwise.”

The fourth moral and ethical principle in medicine was justice, said the G25, which the Kelantan’s law critics claimed, was missing from the enactment.

One of the primary arguments Muslim scholars made against the Kelantan law was that a pious and just society, where there was no poverty and inequality, must be first established before hudud could be enforced, said G25.

“Justice (is) a fundamental principle of the Shariah legal system. Where is the equality and justice when the (Kelantan) laws as currently proposed do not provide adequate protection for the poor and women?”

- TMI