Ulemas say no to mercy killing
JAKARTA (JP): Leading members of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas rejected yesterday a colleague's proposal that euthanasia or mercy killing be allowed for people with AIDS.
The ulemas council said that taking a person's life was Allah's prerogative.
In a statement issued in a seminar on ulemas' role in the campaign against AIDS/HIV, the council said that euthanasia would only rob AIDS patients of the opportunity "to repent" and correct their lifestyles.
"Islam says that all diseases have cures, except when (Allah decides) they have to die," the council said.
The statement on AIDS was among the recommendations made by the council at the seminar in response to Prof. Ibrahim Hosen's paper, which was delivered Monday at the seminar.
The seminar, which ended yesterday, was attended by about 125 representatives of the council's chapters across the country.
Ibrahim, who heads the council's commission in charge of issuing fatwa (religious edicts), told the seminar that mercy killing was acceptable because letting a person with an incurable condition live would waste a lot of money.
Ibrahim said that euthanasia would save human kind because it would cut the chain of contagious disease.
"Euthanasia for a person with AIDS doesn't contradict Islamic law because it is not the same as murder. Instead, it should be viewed as relieving the person of the incurable disease", he said.
Ibrahim referred to an Islamic principle that when faced with two threats the least hazardous should take priority.
Euthanasia for AIDS patients was a lower risk option than letting them live and pose a greater threat to human kind, he said.
The situation, he said, was similar to permissible abortion of a fetus which was believed to be threatening a mother's life. Letting the fetus live would amount to killing the woman.
Council chairman Hasan Basri praised the recommendations produced by three commissions established in the seminar. Among them were drafts of bills to stop adultery, rape and homosexuality.
"We will complete the draft bills and submit them when the newly-elected House members assume their post next October," Basri told The Jakarta Post.
The controversial issue of euthanasia was fiercely debated in 1995 when Hasan Basri revealed his plan to ask the government to allow mercy killing for people with AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. But the plan was met by opposition from Moslem leaders and Minister of Health Sujudi.
Referring to medical codes of ethics and the teachings of all recognized religions in Indonesia, Sujudi rejected the plan and said the fate of AIDS patients was in the hands of God. (11)
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