Question:
A person is told that he has to have an operation, and if he decides not to undergo the operation then he will die. If he has the operation, then there is a very good chance that he will live. If he declines the operation, will this be considered suicide?
Answered by Sheikh Mûhammad al-Ghâmidî, professor at King Khâlid University
A surgical operation is a form of medical treatment.
Scholars disagree about the ruling on medical treatments when they are a necessity for the patient. Some say it is obligatory to undergo a medical treatment if one's life depends on it. Others are of the opinion that it is not obligatory.
Some of the prominent scholars of the past have divided medical treatments into those that are preferable, those that are compulsory, and those that are forbidden. A medical treatment, according to them, becomes compulsory if the person's life depends on it. It takes the same ruling as eating pork or carrion to stave off starvation.
Therefore, since this person was informed by his doctors of the seriousness of his condition and that failure to undergo the operation will result in his death, and that the operation is likely to be a success, then we prefer to say it is obligatory upon him to undergo the operation. In doing so, he is saving a human life.
However, we cannot go so far as to say that he is committing suicide if he refuses to undergo the operation. He will be committing a sin, but not as severe a sin as the one who commits suicide.
And Allah knows best
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