Aligarh April 6: An extension lecture on 'Evolution of Medical Ethics' was held at J N Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, under the aegis of Department of Forensic Medicine. Prof. T. D. Dogra, Chairman Department of Forensic Medicine and Former Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, while delivering the lecture traced genesis and evolution of the concept of moral principles in ethics. He said, these principles are eternal and hence existed in the life of human being. He further stated that ethics is necessary for human existence. That is the reason, man in spite of being a defenseless creature, is superior in this planet, and dominating over other species that have highly evolved senses and feeling of self-awareness. He gave several examples in this direction. Man has quality of imagination, idea and action as well as power of thinking, expression, self-propagation and self-preservation. Due to intense sense of compassion, man needs peaceful coexistence even with several conflicts of interest. He further elaborated that man born after World War II is luckiest person in this planet. Prof. Dogra explained the Ontological and Deontological theory of various stalwart philosophers such as Kant, Jeremy Benthem, W D Ross and Sartre.
Introducing the guest speaker, Prof S J Rizvi, Chairman, Department of Forensic Medicine, said that Prof. T D Dogra is a man of immense qualities. He is a guide, philosopher and a source of inspiration for many students and co-workers.
Prof. Rizvi further said that ethics took centuries to develop from tribes to well developed nations. Ethical codes are also subject to evolution. During the process these codes were affected by religious philosophy, scientific and biological revolutions. She said that Indian civilization is one of the oldest civilizations of the world and it has contributed a lot to the medical ethics as propounded by ancient religious scriptures such as Manusmriti and Vedas have descriptions of various courses related to medical ethics.
Prof Ashraf Malik, Principal and Chief Medical Superintendent, J N Medical College and Hospital, presented vote of thanks and insisted that such lectures should regularly be organized in the college. Highlighting the importance of the topic of the lecture Prof. Malik spoke at length. He said Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality, such as how a moral outcome can be achieved in a specific situation (applied ethics), how moral values should be determined (normative ethics) and what moral values people actually abide by.
Highlighting the history of thought development on medical ethics, Prof. Ashraf Malik said that historically, Western medical ethics may be traced to guidelines on the duty of physicians such as the Hippocratic oath, in the medieval and early modern period, the field is indebted to Muslim physicians such as Ishaq Bin Ali Rahawi (who wrote the Conduct of a Physician, the first book dedicated to medical ethics) and Muhammad Ibn Zakariya ar-Razi (known as Rhazes in the West). The British Doctor Thomas Percival (1740-1804) of Manchester wrote about "medical jurisprudence" and reportedly coined the phrase "medical ethics."
Prof. Malik stressed that values such as autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, dignity, truthfulness and honesty be adopted.
The programme was conducted by Dr. Sadiya Saeed. A large number of teachers and students attended the lecture including Prof. Abu Qamar Siddiqui (Dean Faculty of Medicine), Prof Usha Singhal, Prof. Jawed Usmani, Dr. Munawwer Hussain, Prof D K Agarwal, Prof Abida Malik, Prof Haroon Subhan Khan, Prof Shahid Siddiqui, Prof R R Sukul, Prof R Sharma, Dr. Imran Ghani, Dr. Masood Siddiqui, Dr. Tamkin Rabbani and Dr Syed Ziaur Rahman.
(Zeeshan Ahmad)
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