i-Medik chairman Dr Azmi Md Nor said MMA has shown disrespect to Muslims by threatening to axe doctors who perform amputations under hudud. — AFP pic

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has disrespected Muslims and Muslim doctors by threatening to axe doctors who perform amputations under hudud, according to Muslim medical practitioners’ group i-Medik.

Muslim doctors have sworn to an Islamic doctor’s oath which also binds them to Islam as a way of life and the implementation of Islamic laws including hudud, it added.

“A Muslim doctor performs his task according to the Islamic medical doctor’s oath, which fully supports Islam as a way of life, and this includes fully supporting Shariah laws,” i-Medik chairman Prof Dr Azmi Md Nor said.

His message was carried on Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia’s (Isma) website. i-Medik is allied to Isma.

Dr Azmi did not specify which Islamic oath he was referring to, and how it differs with the Hippocratic Oath taken by all doctors.

The Hippocratic Oath states, among others, that doctors must never do harm to anyone, and must do what is best for their patients.

According to the group, MMA had been hasty in its warning and does not understand the controversial Islamic penal code.

“If MMA does not agree with hudud suggestion for Kelantan, it cannot make hudud as a joke for the 63.1 per cent Muslims in Malaysia,” warned Dr Azmi.

On Thursday, the MMA vowed it will seek to disqualify surgeons who perform the unethical amputations on criminals convicted under hudud in Kelantan.

Datuk Dr NKS Tharmaseelan, the MMA president, criticised the Kelantan government’s plans to have surgeons to perform amputations on criminal offenders convicted under the strict Islamic penal code.

As the World Health Organisation (WHO) has told doctors not to be a witness or certify the whipping and caning of criminals, Tharmaseelan said the amputation of criminals’ limbs would be even more “serious”.

Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said this week that the state is considering engaging the service of surgeons in performing amputation on offenders.

In Islamic jurisprudence, “hudud” covers crimes such as theft, robbery, adultery, rape and sodomy. Punishments for the crimes are severe, including amputation, flogging and death by stoning.