Medical Error, Meaning and Effects in Shari'a (Islamic Jurisdiction)

This paper aims at explaining the meaning of medical errors, highlighting their types, methods for prevention, when does the doctor take the responsibility for his error and what are the standards and principles which Foqaha' (Legists) used in order to determine a doctor's responsibility for any harm that a patient experiences when he/she is exposed to medical treatment. The research has emerged from a number of issues and cases which pointed out to the subject in which I am researching, which is medical errors, that is, I have briefly talked about the five necessities and that the main purpose of Islamic Law is to preserve those necessities. The five necessities include: Preserving the religion, the self, the money and the mind. Thus, any medical treatment should be directed towards the preservation of those necessities. For example, the research has talked about medical treatment and how important is to seek it in order to preserve the body and not to ignore or damage it while there is a possibility for a cure especially that the development in medicine today facilitates medical treatment. The research has also talked about the idea of Medicine career fidelity which requires the doctor to be a specialist who seeks knowledge and experience in this field. This huge scientific progress which caused the emergence of new specializations. This meant that the doctor is not alone in this field but there is a team of experts in different fields such as laboratory analyses, x-ray, nursing and others. Thus, it is important to talk about the relationship between the doctor and his colleagues in order to achieve the highest degrees of benefit to the patient and to stay a way from medical error. Also, the morals that should govern this relationship so that there could be some cooperation that can help in preventing an error from happening. The research has discussed the principles upon which medical error is based and what are the basics with which this error is measured. Also what is the criterion that the Foqaha' have set to free the doctor from any accountability whenever he commits an error. It also clarified the meaning of scientific principles of Medicine career so that the whole thing would be as clear as possible in addition to the nature of the medical permission and its rules that the Foqaha' have specified before applying the treatment. Among the issues that the research has also discussed are the degrees of medical error, its types and shapes. Among those issues that the research has talked about are the impacts of the medical error that our Foqaha' have explained.