In Islamic bioethics, the issue of moral agency arises in connection with decisions that a human being is supposed to be able to make in certain medical and health-related situations. Islamic treatments of bioethical issues usually draw on the juristic decisions, rulings, and opinions that make up the classical Islamic legal-ethical tradition called Sharī‘a. However, tradition is largely premodern and needs to become sensitized to modern issues and problems. Tradition can provide religious, moral, and legal guidance and direction, with the Qur’ān and the Prophet’s Sunna as the chief sources of a bioethical system.
