The
Interplay between Muslim Organ Donation Attitudes & Fatawa: Commentaries on
the interdisciplinary nature and epistemological challenges of “Islamic”
Bioethics
Elham Mireshghi, PhD Candidate, University of California, Irvine
Aasim I. Padela MD, MSc, University of Chicago
Numerous surveys reveal that Muslims—from diverse backgrounds and living in different countries--- hold negative attitudes towards organ donation, and that they are less likely to donate organs. Indeed some surveys suggest that being Muslim, in and of itself, predicts a disinclination to participate in organ donation activities. Accordingly healthcare stakeholders in the UK and Turkey have sought to partner with Islamic religious authorities to promote organ donation by means issuing, or disseminating, Islamic ethico-legal verdicts, fatawa that judge organ donation to be consonant with the Islamic tradition. These efforts are further supported by case studies of Iran. Indeed, greater than 2000 organs are transplanted each year in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the country is home to the world’s only regulated paid kidney giving program. This striking contrast in the narrative of Muslim communities disengaging with organ donation programs was, at least in part, made possible through the permissive fatwas of Shi’a Islamic jurists. Current data from the UK and Turkey reveals however that the fatawa-based interventions have not measurably increased Muslim donor rates
In this presentation we bring together a health services researcher, bioethicist and expert in Sunni moral theology, together with an anthropologist with deep knowledge of the Shi’a tradition, in an attempt to explain this puzzling situation by highlighting concepts within the Islamic ethico-legal tradition that must be accounted for when attempting to partner with Islamic religious authorities and utilize the tools of ethico-legal tradition for health behavior change. The first part of the session will have each scholar describe the ‘facts’ and ‘truths’ emerging from research conducted through empirical survey-based research and normative Islamic legal studies on one hand, with data garnered through ethnographic study and social scientific approaches to religion relating to organ donation attitudes within Muslim communities. Next, each presenter will comment on the other’s data so as to demarcate the epistemological tensions within scientific inquiry in general, and the study of Islamic bioethics, in particular. Finally we will present a theoretical model for community-based healthcare interventions that involve Sunni Islamic religious authorities in the West, and present a model for health policy interventions in Shi’a Iran that account for the relationships between Shi’a Islamic jurisprudence and health policy stakeholders.
Aasim I. Padela MD, MSc, University of Chicago
Numerous surveys reveal that Muslims—from diverse backgrounds and living in different countries--- hold negative attitudes towards organ donation, and that they are less likely to donate organs. Indeed some surveys suggest that being Muslim, in and of itself, predicts a disinclination to participate in organ donation activities. Accordingly healthcare stakeholders in the UK and Turkey have sought to partner with Islamic religious authorities to promote organ donation by means issuing, or disseminating, Islamic ethico-legal verdicts, fatawa that judge organ donation to be consonant with the Islamic tradition. These efforts are further supported by case studies of Iran. Indeed, greater than 2000 organs are transplanted each year in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the country is home to the world’s only regulated paid kidney giving program. This striking contrast in the narrative of Muslim communities disengaging with organ donation programs was, at least in part, made possible through the permissive fatwas of Shi’a Islamic jurists. Current data from the UK and Turkey reveals however that the fatawa-based interventions have not measurably increased Muslim donor rates
In this presentation we bring together a health services researcher, bioethicist and expert in Sunni moral theology, together with an anthropologist with deep knowledge of the Shi’a tradition, in an attempt to explain this puzzling situation by highlighting concepts within the Islamic ethico-legal tradition that must be accounted for when attempting to partner with Islamic religious authorities and utilize the tools of ethico-legal tradition for health behavior change. The first part of the session will have each scholar describe the ‘facts’ and ‘truths’ emerging from research conducted through empirical survey-based research and normative Islamic legal studies on one hand, with data garnered through ethnographic study and social scientific approaches to religion relating to organ donation attitudes within Muslim communities. Next, each presenter will comment on the other’s data so as to demarcate the epistemological tensions within scientific inquiry in general, and the study of Islamic bioethics, in particular. Finally we will present a theoretical model for community-based healthcare interventions that involve Sunni Islamic religious authorities in the West, and present a model for health policy interventions in Shi’a Iran that account for the relationships between Shi’a Islamic jurisprudence and health policy stakeholders.