Death Be Not Proud: A Commentary on Muslim Acceptance of Death in the Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Technologies used in medicine have meant that treatments can keep people biologically alive but often fail to provide meaningful recovery and quality of life. Many of those from the Islamic faith have relied on these technologies for recovery on religious grounds, even when it may be against clinical advice. This commentary seeks to challenge this notion among many Muslims and suggests there is a psycho-spiritual motivation within the Islamic tradition in not pursuing intensive care treatment that is deemed futile by clinicians. A wish to embrace death in these situations should be expressed to loved ones, and the dying person’s loved ones should be encouraged to embrace death, in order to minimise harm from disagreements between clinical staff and family.

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“…Bradford’s law is a useful tool for analyzing the distribution of information, as well as to better understand its structure and how the different aspects of a topic are related to one another. Taking this into account, the present analysis established that, of the 71 journals reported, the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (Q1) with 11 publications [ 57 , 62 , 65 , 70 , 77 , 81 , 87 , 99 , 103 , 109 , 124 ], the Journal of Palliative Medicine (Q2) with 10 [ 59 , 71 , 89 , 91 , 93 , 96 , 98 , 131 , 148 ], the Journal of Religion and Health (not JCR) with 7 [ 58 , 63 , 67 , 78 , 107 , 112 , 118 ], Nursing Ethics (Q1) with 6 [ 39 , 56 , 69 , 73 , 75 , 104 ], Journal of Medical Ethics (Q1) with 4 [ 53 , 100 , 102 , 106 ] and BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care (not JCR) with 3 publications [ 68 , 85 , 97 ] were the central sources, with accounting for only 8.5% of the total. See Figure 1 .…”

American Muslim Engagement With Advance Care Planning: Insights From a Community Survey

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