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The Ministry of Health had to revise its regulations about the functioning and composition of Board of Ethics in Clinical Research because the earlier one has been repealed by the Supreme Administrative Court upon a complaint by the Turkish Medical Association on grounds that it contravenes the existing laws.
The ministry published new regulations last week in the Official Gazette; but this time it seems to lead to more controversy. These boards that usually function within the framework of medical schools but supervised by the ministry are supposed to oversee the ethical rules of medical research, new methods of therapy and new medicine will now include an imam or a graduate of Ilahiyat Fakultesi that corresponds to a Theology School in the Christendom.
The earlier version of regulations also included a layman as a member of the board who was defined as “a university graduate who is not a member of professions related to health.”
According to the ministry, the inclusion of the imam will represent “the people” on the board and the measure conforms to similar practices in the European Union. “The inclusion of an imam is not directly related to religion. The reason is, men of religion are more disposed to human sensitivities,” said a spokesman for the ministry.
However, Islamic circles welcomed the measure saying that an imam on the board would prevent the usage of substances proscribed by Islam in drugs and new therapy methods.
According to medical authorities introducing religious concepts into the ethics of medicine “would hamper scientific progress.” “There are expert deontologists on the Ethics Board who are in full knowledge of the moral, legal and scientific aspects of medical research, there is no need for religious counsel,” a spokesman for the Turkish Medical Association said.
Since the Supreme Administrative Court repealed the Board’s regulations in January no medical research has been done in Turkey, Prof.Dr. Serdar Bor, the Dean of the Medical School at the Aegean University in Izmir pointed out.
“For the last two months research at medical schools at the Turkish universities has stopped. Because there are no regulations and we don’t have budgetary funds,” he said.
The introduction of an imam in every ethics board will probably pour more oil on the fiery debate over whether the government of Tayyip Erdogan is trying to shape the Turkish society after an Islamic model.
