Dr. Rehana Kamal, Chair, Hospital Ethical Committee (HEC) traced the development of HEC at AKU, including its terms of reference, education of members and mandate. Dr. Kamal stated that the role of HEC, comprising 14 members and one chair, is advisory and confidential. She also said that from January 2001 to December 2003, the committee has been consulted on 36 cases with 72% cases dealing with end of life issues, Co's recommendations were accepted in 97% of the cases.
Professor Farhat Moazam, Fellow, Institute of Practical Ethics, University of Virginia, USA, talked about on 'Foundational Ethical Concepts in Islam: The Qur'an, Abu Bakr al-Razi and Imam al-Ghazali'. As opposed to contemporary ethical theories that ask"Is the act ethical", Dr. Moazzam advocated virtue ethics, traceable to Aristotle, which focused on "Is the acting agent moral"? She linked virtue ethics to Muslim scholars and physicians who emphasised achieving moral excellence through the cultivation of moral traits. She said that contemporary bioethics' limitation is that it is grounded i
n the Anglo-European, secular, rational philosophy while people derive their relativistic moral values through a diversity of source. Bioethics needs to explore indigenous cultural and religious value system and its moral comprehension with reference to different societies.
Participants at the workshop on Clinical Ethics.
Dr. Paul Lombardo, Director, Program in Law and Medicine, Center for Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia, USA, spoke on the role of ethical committees as well as the relationship between law and ethics in his talk titled"Ethical parameters for a health care institution" Adil Salahi, Senior Lecturer, Islamic Studies, Markfield Institute of Higher Education, UK, elucidated the concept of justice in Islam with special reference to healthcare. He highlighted the role as well as the responsibilities of government, hospital as well as the society and the concept of
Islamic justice.
The two afternoon sessions of the symposium dealt with end of life issues and abortion. Speakers investigated diverse and pertinent topics like"Controversies
"any qutation"
Ambreen
over end of life issues", "Sanctity of life and death: The Islamic perspective" and "Care of dying patients: difficulties and challenges in teaching". Abortion related issues included Islamic perspective on abortion, abortion laws in some Islamic countries and the reality of abortion in Pakistan through case studies.
The symposium was followed by a full day workshop on Clinical Ethics. Objectives of the workshop were to enable participants to identify and analyze an ethical dilemma, to understand a structured approach in assessing issues of clinical ethics and to identify the difficulties and effectiveness of the structured approach. Methodology of the workshop was Case simulation and group work. 32 health care professionals participated in the workshop.
