The Four Principles in Islamic and Western Medical Ethics: A Scoping Review

Understanding medical ethics is essential for healthcare professionals to practise medicine in a culturally sensitive and appropriate manner. We undertook a scoping review of the English literature from PubMed and JSTOR after 1980, to compare the application of the four principles: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice in Islamic and Western medical ethics (Beauchamp and Childress' model, the most widely used). 34 out of 135 articles met the inclusion criteria (Analysing a principle of stated ethical framework rather than simply mentioning it). Our review demonstrated that there are more similarities in both frameworks than differences, with the key distinction being the perception of autonomy in a familial and societal context in Islam. There is an objectively right medical choice for patients in Islam, which brings one closer to Shari'ah. Beneficence and nonmaleficence are mostly concordant in both schools, and justice in all its forms is espoused in both, with some differences.