Muslim scholars and medical professionals are confronted with urgent ethical questions (abortion, in vitro fertilization, end of life, organ donation or transplantation) posed by advances in biomedicine. Their ethical-legal response to these questions and their efforts to interact with dominant Western theory in bioethics have contributed to a discourse on “Islam and medical ethics”, although the theoretical framework of an “Islamic bioethics” remains to develop.

This work is the result of the proceedings of a three-day seminar organized by the Center for Research on Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) in Doha. One of the objectives of CILE is to facilitate meetings between ulama' and scientists in a given specialty to better develop exchanges of opinions and promote reflections from within the scientific fields studied. The list of participants included four Muslim religious scholars, two Muslim doctors and two bioethicists. The invited Muslim religious scholars were Sheikh Ahmed RAISSOUNI (Morocco), Sheikh Abdul Sattar ABU GHUDDAH (Syria), Sheikh Ali AL-QARADAGAHI (Qatar) and Sheikh Abdullah BIN BAYYAH (Mauritania). The two Muslim doctors were Hassan CHAMSI-PASHA (Syria) and Mohammed Ali AL-BAR (Saudi Arabia). The two bioethicists were Tom BEAUCHAMP (United States) and Annelien BREDENOORD (Netherlands). This work serves as a reminder of the imperative to engage in an honest societal debate drawing on the insights of biomedical practitioners, social scientists, philosophers, religious scholars and ordinary people on biomedical research and practice and on the aspects psycho-socio-spiritual and political-economic aspects of health and well-being. Through it all, we must consider the historical context that gave rise to biomedicine and bioethics; we must critically examine their current developments and assess the risk and opportunities they represent for present and future generations.