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A Comparison between Brain Death and Unstable Life: Shi'ite Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Saeid Nazari Tavakkoli
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Death comes to us all. It is a reality that grips us all because we become separated from our loved ones. In all cultures, there is the hope that when death comes, it will be swift and will allow us to depart without prolonged suffering. There is also a social dimension to this inevitable event in human life: we hope that our death will not force hardship on family and friends, making them pay both financially and emotionally due to an uncertain condition that is created by a lingering spirit that does not sever its ties to the body. It is at such moments that we realize the importance of having a clear definition of death.

Brain death as a way of measuring when death comes is an issue that has recently been under scrutiny throughout the world of medicine, but it has also been hotly debated in Islamic jurisprudence as well. Thanks to advanced medical technology, it has now become possible to transplant body organs of a person suffering from brain death into the body of a needy ill person, but for the most part, successful transplantation must take place before the emergence of traditional death symptoms. Physicians and ethicists have struggled with the difficulty in offering a medical definition for brain death. The question that has arisen for Muslim jurists is whether, from the point of view of Islamic jurisprudence, someone suffering from brain death should be considered as dead for purposes of permitting transplantation of organs, or whether Muslims must treat a brain-dead patient as a living person from a legal and ethical perspective.

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Articles
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Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , 2008 , pp. 605 - 627
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Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2008

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References

1. Irrespective of the cellular life which any living organism possesses, the human-rational life of man begins when life is given to the fetus. Referring to various stages of the development of the fetus, the Qur'ān speaks of another creation of human being in the following verse: “Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a (fetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the best to create!” Q. 23: 14.

2. Describing death, the Qur'ān applies the verb WFY and its derivations. The word means “to complete a task.” When it is applied to describe death, it carries the meaning of the soul's departure from the body at time of death. Thus we read: “He is the irresistible, (watching) from above over His worshippers, and He sets guardians over you. At length, when death approaches one of you, Our angels take his soul, and they never fail in their duty.” Q. 6:61.

When the soul is separated from the body, the body remains in the physical world and disintegrates, but the soul passes into the intermediate realm (barzakh). Barzakh refers to a realm between this world and the resurrection; it is the passage for souls from this world to another after death. Human souls continuously enter the intermediate realm until the world comes to an end and the human being is resurrected on the Day of Judgment.

3. Because of the eminent position of man in Islam, harming the fetus in the process of fertilization when a male's sperm and female's egg fuse together and produce a single cell developing into an adult organism is forbidden. Moreover, the criminal is also responsible for the payment of blood money (dīya) as compensation for an injury or death. Although inflicting any injury to the fetus before it is completely gestated is forbidden, it can not be considered “homicide”(qatl al-nafs) until the fetus is ensouled after about four months. After that time, any action that causes abortion before birth, is considered homicide. For more information, see Muhsini, Muhammad Asef, al-Fiqh wa al-Masāil al-Tibbīyya 59–80 (n.d. Matbaat Yaran)Google Scholar.

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20. Q. 67:1-2.

21. Life and death are not contradictory; for death is not the absence of life. Rather, life is conceivable in two forms: in the physical and nonphysical (intermediate) body. The condition for entrance into the nonphysical world and living in any immaterial body is the spirit's passing from the physical body which is only possible by death. On account of this, death is not taking life away, but it is the separation of the soul from the body, the soul which once breathed into the body during the embryonic period, causes the human life to begin. Given such an approach, the Quran uses the term “creation” to account for death and life.

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It is said that life is a description for a person inasmuch as he can learn and act; the matter of death is different. Some say that it is actually a negation of this ability [to learn and to act]. We are of the opinion that this is a description of existence contrary to life and we argue that God, the Exalted says: “He is the one who created death,” because non-existence (al- ‘adam) is not creatable [on its own]. This is the conclusion.

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60. As a result, in circumstances in which an individual has an unstable life, because of the lack of potential for continuation of life, he or she is regarded as dead. However, if one has suffered brain death, in view of the fact that the body still has the potential for continuation of life, the separation of the soul from the body is not certain and the individual is considered as alive. On this basis, the rules of the Islamic jurisprudence concerning a dead body apply to anybody with unstable life as well, but not to one who has suffered brain death.

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