What is the Islamic view on withdrawing life support?

The classical question is not the modern one. The schools never met a ventilator — the phrase for resuscitation equipment does not occur once in the 45-volume Kuwaiti encyclopaedia, and neither does the phrase for euthanasia. What they ruled on is the prior question, whether a person is obliged to seek treatment at all, and there they give four different answers: the Hanafi majority and the Malikis say it is simply permitted; the Shafi’is say it is recommended, and obligatory where the benefit is certain; and the Hanbali majority, on Ahmad’s own text, say leaving it is better, as closer to reliance on God — with named Hanbalis dissenting. The modern questions are answered by named bodies with resolution numbers: the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Amman in 1986 and the Muslim World League’s Council in Makkah in 1987 both accept the irreversible cessation of all brain function as a sign of death, and both permit the equipment to be removed. None of this is euthanasia, and Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta says why in its own words.

All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Withdrawing treatment, and when a person is dead.