STRASBOURG, March 20 (IslamOnline and News Agencies) – Euthanasia is once again at the core of international debate as the European Court of Human rights considers the case of a paralyzed British woman who wants the right to end her life.

Diane Pretty, 43, a British mother of two is terminally-ill with a motor neurone disease and wants to be granted permission to have her husband Brian help her commit suicide. So far, she has failed to gain acquiesence of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to allow her husband to perform the act.

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia under certain conditions in January; however, the practice has been tolerated since 1997.

Conditions include the strict evaluation of regional review committees consisting of legal, medical, and ethical experts carefully judging each patient's request.

A second medical opinion will be needed, and the suffering of the patient must be deemed unbearable. Only where there is doubt will the case be referred to the public prosecutor.

But in a landmark case in December 2001, an Amsterdam appeals court ruled that being "tired of living" does not constitute a legitimate reason for what has been termed “mercy killing”. A doctor who acted out of compassion for an 86-year-old patient did, however, escape a jail sentence.

Islam’s stance is very clear on this issue and divides euthanasia into two categories: active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. The first refers to an act that leads to death like giving a patient a fatal injection to hasten his death.

The latter is the negative attitude taken with the aim of hastening death for the patient; this can be by withholding or withdrawing water, food, drugs, medical or surgical procedures, resuscitation like CPR, and life support such as the respirator. The patient is then left to die from the underlying disease.

Some Muslim scholars maintain that all types of euthanasia are forbidden as they run counter to noble principles of Islamic Jurisprudence that are deducted from the textual evidence, i.e. from the Qur’an and the Prophet’s Tradition.

Prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi states that positive euthanasia or so-called “mercy killing” is forbidden in Islam as it encompasses a positive role on the part of the physician to end the life of the patient and hasten his death via lethal injection, electric shock, a sharp weapon or any other way. This is an act of murder, and murder is a major sin in Islam, the religion of pure mercy.

As for the suspension of medical treatment via preventing the patient from his due medication which is, from a medical perspective, thought to be useless, this is permissible and is sometimes is even recommended. Thus, the physician can do this for the sake of the patient’s comfort and the relief of his family.

Egyptian Islamic thinker Tarek al-Bishry told IslamOnline that euthanasia is forbidden by all religions and man-made laws.

He said this is a new and unnatural concept and is widely opposed. “How long a person lives is solely determined by God and no-one should interfere in this process of life and death,” Al-Bishry said.

He added that euthanasia is an intricate subject that trespasses into medically prohibited territories.

Al-Bishry stated that no one -- not even the doctor -- should be allowed to determine the patient's life span. He said the doctor’s only purpose is to treat patients and to try relieve pain without resorting to fatal means.

Muzammil Siddiqi, an Islamic scholar, said: “The sick person should patiently endure the pain and pray to Allah. If he/she is patient, there will be a great reward and blessing for him/her in the eternal life.”

If, however, a number of medical experts determine that a patient is in a terminal condition and there is no hope for his/her recovery, then it could be permissible for them to stop the medication.

If the patient is on life support, it may be permissible, with due consultation and care, to decide to switch off the life support machine and let nature take its own time.

Under no condition is it permissible to induce death to a patient. 

The Dutch Roman Catholic Church said the legalization of euthanasia in the Netherlands would make it too easy for people to give up. "People who are ill but consider themselves a burden to their family, that's the problem," a spokesman for the Bishops Conference said in April 2001.