Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC THOUGHT, cilt.27, ss.14-26, 2025 (Scopus)
A medical will is a directive that sets out future health-related instructions for circumstances in which an individual will lose the capacity to decide or express their will. These directives typically concern ending treatments that provide no benefit or discontinuing treatments involving life-support systems. However, because Islamic law restricts a patient’s authority over their body in medical matters to the principles of “non-harm” and “benefit,” it limits the legal validity of such health-related instructions. Islamic law requires the patient’s—or their legal representative’s—permission for medical treatment, while the authority to terminate treatment belongs to the physician. Although “medical wills” and death-related wills both contain forward-looking instructions, they are legally different. Therefore, the legitimacy of a medical will cannot be established by referring to wills, which are dispositions related to death. This study examines the roles of patients and physicians in end-of-life medical decisions, focusing specifically on “medical wills.” It will qualitatively analyze the issue using classical and contemporary Islamic legal sources, with occasional comparisons to legal frameworks in Europe and Turkey to present the Islamic legal perspective.