Question 774

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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. There is no power or strength except through Allah, the Most High, the Magnificent. O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis, and grant them peace. Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. To Imam Ahmed Alhasan (a)-may Allah establish him in the earth and hasten the relief of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad (a). In the field of medicine, medical-college students are required to engage in many practices that may harm a patient in the long or short term, and these practices are also common. For example, in dentistry, the student is taught that an amalgam filling is harmless, while in reality it contains mercury, which is toxic and affects a person’s health as long as it remains in his mouth and is not removed. A dental student is required to use this filling on patients at the medical college even though nontoxic alternatives exist. Likewise, a pediatrician is required to give vaccines to children, and these too contain toxic substances such as thimerosal. What must a person do if he wants to practice a profession and, during his studies, is required to engage in these harmful practices? Does the end justify the means? If a person wants to practice a profession such as the two I mentioned, he must do these things that cause people real harm. If the student objects to these practices, he has no choice and may be expelled from his studies. May the student continue studying the specialty in the situation I described, or should he leave it and study something else that does not contain such a difficulty? Sender: Umm Ayyub - United States

Source: The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 7; Author: Imam Ahmed Al-Hasan; Question 774; Page Not available; AL-JAWAB-AL-MUNIR-V7-Q774. View Arabic source · Open the original Arabic source ↗

Accepted Answer

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis, and grant them peace. May Allah grant you success and direct your steps aright. The general course of modern medicine benefits people’s bodies. Were it not for these vaccines and chemical treatments that may sometimes bear some harm, the earth’s population would not have reached seven billion. The presence of harmful substances in a particular treatment does not negate the benefit and does not mean that it must be avoided. Many foods we consume contain deadly toxins; for this reason, we need the liver, kidneys, and excretory outlet to rid ourselves of these toxic substances, yet we do not refrain from eating food. Thus, medicine may be learned in medical colleges according to the curricula established by specialists among the professors of medical colleges. It is also permissible to practice it and to use medicines and treatments, even when they carry some possible harm alongside the benefit they provide. When necessary, it is permissible to conduct therapeutic experiments upon human beings even if there is a possibility that the experiment may cause death, but with the consent of the patient volunteering to undergo the experiment, such as experiments in gene therapy for hemophilia, cancer, and the like. It is permissible to conduct experiments upon embryonic stem cells even if the matter results in killing the embryos, provided the embryos are cloning embryos from donors, are in their first days, and are before the embryo begins to take form. It is not permissible to use embryos produced by fertilizing an ovum with sperm. It is permissible to produce parts of the human body-such as the liver, heart, and eye-in the laboratory from embryonic stem cells taken from an embryo cloned from a person and implant them into that same person.

Question 774 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 7

Question and answer [link]

Question 774

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

References