Progress in science, especially medicine, has been tremendous. The medical profession has come to be held in high esteem; indeed higher than any other human profession, as physician are looked upon as God's way of showing mercy to those afflicted, either physically pr mentally by a visitation of ill health. Such people are in dire need of whatever alleviates their pain and enhances their hopes of recovery. They also need words that strengthen their faith in God; words that remind them that their affliction, like any thing else in this universe, is preordained.

On the other hand, medical sciences have successfully done away with many epidemics that used to wreak havoc on whole nations. Now such diseases are a thing of the past thanks to vaccines, inoculation, and antibiotics that are produced in huge quantities to cover the needs of an increasing world population. Medicine has also achieved impressive results in innovating treatments for several types of hard-to-cure diseases. The use of several state-of-the-art medical instruments and equipment has led to finding out a lot more about pathogens and ways of overcoming the resulting disorders. The twenty first century will witness more and more applications of the theories that were developed by medical scientists during the twentieth century.

But the question is: have all these feats of success brought happiness to mankind? Unfortunately, the twentieth century saw certain behaviors by some workers in the medical field that fly in the face of morality. Such misdeeds constitute a deviation from the lofty principles that the medical profession.

Although deviation is a recognized human trait best known for its major role in the conflict between good and evil; and despite the fact that it is not confined to any particular race, nation, generation, or profession, the twentieth century witnessed such a remarkable rise in deviant thoughts and attitudes that moralists worldwide have banded together to stand up to any such conduct and to lay down a legal and ethical frame of reference that spells out in the clearest terms the normal and acceptable ways of administering medical services. Any departure from that clear line of ethical behaviour should be considered punishable deviation. This matter requires immediate attention as a patient receiving health services has now to deal not only with his physician but also with a large number of people with varied duties in the domain of medical care. Some of these workers have confused ideas about duties and rights and carry out their tasks with irresponsible negligence and/or dishonest designs, thus tarnishing one of the noblest professions on earth.

Misconduct is not confined to delivery of health services. It has also affected the area of scientific research where man's crave for knowledge is most dominant if left unbridled. Medical scientists have been so enraptured by a chain of discoveries which go beyond their wildest dreams that they have overlooked the sanctity of man who, of all God's creatures has been honoured by responsibility of life on earth. Islam calls upon Muslims to conduct research on whatever universal phenomena they may observe and urges them to look intently into everything surrounding them on earth or in heaven as well as into themselves as long as their findings are employed for the benefit of mankind. Unfortunately, scientific research has lately been heading for areas that could turn out to be disastrous to mankind. It has become essential, therefore, to map out the framework within which researchers may work freely without fear of transcending man's safety and sacred rights. In short, research procedures should be considered from an ethical perspective. This is particularly important in view of certain recent scientific findings and their actual application to people. The proposed ethical framework for research should lay down general rules for what may or may not be a subject of research and application.

With all the efforts exerted by moralists from all religions and tenets to condemn and curb faulty trends, commercial considerations have become the leading principle in the persistence of such trends. The media are awash with news stories about people being used as guinea pigs for scientific and commercial purposes as well, thus degrading man both physically and psychologically.

Before the ship sinks with all aboard when such serious deviations turn into a phenomenon; before humanity loses its dearest accomplishments to a handful of unscrupulous people who are satanically bent on making money regardless of any human values, the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences (IOMS) has stood up to that phenomenon since its inception. In 1981, IOMS issued its first document containing recommendations about the rights and duties in the doctor-patient relationship. At the time, the document was considered an important and unique event. The IOMS received a letter form the Vatican expressing Papal blessing for the document. But the IOMS did not stop at that. It has also been watching closely a number of medical innovations submitting each to thorough scrutiny based on Islamic jurisprudence. In a series of meetings that brought together medical scientists and scholars of Islamic jurisprudence each new finding was the subject of a full-scale academic discussion marked by transparency and freedom of speech. The IOMS fight against aberrant trends and behaviours has been enormously enriched by such meetings. The ultimate goal of the IOMS is to revive the Islamic values of commitment to ethical conduct in the field of medical services. These values were tenaciously upheld by doctor, patient, and the whole society when Islamic medicine was predominant in the whole world.

We have compiled the views and analyses reached by the above-mentioned joint meetings. The result is this issue entitled "The Islamic Code for Medical and Health Ethics". We have seen fit to present the workers in the medical domain with these jurisprudent conclusions based on Islamic Shari'a concerning medical innovations during the past two decades. The purpose is to pinpoint the rules that should be followed in order to preserve the dignity of mankind and protect humanity against any abuse of man's body or soul.

The contents of this Code have been carefully arranged into logical sections by a select group of highly qualified researchers so that reference and cross reference is made easy.

The Code has an introduction which delves deeply and comprehensively in Islamic morals and jurisprudent rules that constitute the point of departure in the Code.

Putting the outcome of our efforts safely in your hands, dear reader, we pray that these efforts have been rewarded with modest success. We sincerely hope that you will be critical enough to write to us proposing any remarks, modifications, or even opposing views which will all be taken into account in future editions.

It is my pleasure to acknowledge with appreciation to our brothers in EMRO, ISESCO, CIOMS and Ajman University of Science and Technology Network for their cooperation and partnership of that meeting.

I deeply appreciate the contributions made to this work and pray that each effort put into it, no matter how little, will be rewarded by Allah.

Dr. Abdul Rahman A. Al-Awadi

President

Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences