Question:
What is the ruling on someone that is on life support; is it allowed to
remove a person from life support? What about DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders?
Answer:
Verily the praises are to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be
upon prophet Muhammed.
Darul Ifta, the lead scholars of the world directed by shaikh Bin Baz, has ruled that
in cases such as this, the situation should be examined by three specialist doctors. If all three
determine that there is no chance of survival, i.e. the condition of the patient would just
degenerate and not improve, it would be allowed to remove the patient from life support
and implement the DNR (Do Not Resusciate) order. The DNR order should be determined by the
three specialist physicians, and no consideration should be given to the statements of the
family, or the patients previous statements regarding the DNR.
And Allah knows.
Shaikh Sajid