Confab on Advance Medical Directive

KUALA LUMPUR: A conference will be held here to discuss the Islamic perspective on Advance Medical Directive (AMD), which more countries are adopting.

According to the director/senior fellow of the Centre for Science and Environment Studies at the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM), Dr Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen Shaikh Mohd Salleh, AMD is a legal document on the will or instructions of a person on the type of care he wants or the appointment of his representative, at a time when he has lost cognitive ability to make a decision.

The instruction is in connection to the patient’s autonomous choice to accept lifelong assistance if he suffers from long-term serious illness and the chance of a cure is slim.

“There is increasing awareness of AMD in our country even though there is no indication that it would be implemented here in the near future. However, to prepare society towards that, IKIM has taken the initiative to discuss this matter from an Islamic perspective.

“The discussion is a pro-active step to provide inputs to interested parties on an issue which needs attention if AMD is implemented in our country,” he said when met at the Expert Conference on”Framework of Guidelines on the Implementation of Advance Medical Directive According to Fiqh and Islamic Bioethics” organised by IKIM together with KPJ Healthcare Berhad yesterday. — Bernama