Islamic Center of Southern California

The International Islamic Code for Medical and Health Ethics

CHAPTER 6

Medical Behavior and Physician Rights and Duties

Advertisement and the Media

Article Seventy-Two:

What is meant by advertisement and the media is for the doctor to resort, directly or through an intermediary, to conventional visual, auditory, or printed advertisement media - such as newspapers, magazines, visual or auditory broadcasting, and ordinary or electronic mail, as well as other media - to transmit information that introduces the physician, his field of specialization, and his experience.

Article Seventy-Three:

An advertisement may list the physician's degrees, fields of specialization, professional history, experience, and other objective data, as long as none of them is misleading.

Article Seventy-Four:

An advertisement should not include information with the purpose of misleading the receiver, giving a false image, or hiding the side effects of an advertised treatment. Likewise, the advertisement should not be indecent, jeopardize the dignity of the profession, or offend professional colleagues.

Article Seventy-Five:

A physician should not claim for himself or his establishment to have diagnostic or therapeutic skills or services for which he is not qualified or which he is not licensed to perform.

Article Seventy-Six:

A physician should not exploit a patient's ignorance in the field of medicine to mislead him by claiming that the physician is capable of performing certain diagnostic or therapeutic procedures that have no scientific basis, or by offering a guarantee to cure certain diseases. The content of an advertisement should include only true information, with no exaggeration, and should not include statements in any form that imply superiority to others or discredit them.

Article Seventy-Seven:

A physician should have his name, qualifications, address, and contact data in any local or national directory or in other, similar highly regarded publications. Physicians and specialists who work in the private sector may notify their colleagues and other health establishments of the services and practices they perform.

Article Seventy-Eight:

Although it is necessary to use printed, auditory, and visual media extensively for the purpose of health education and health awareness, it is also necessary to take all precautions to avoid abusing these media for the promotion of a physician in a manner contradictory to the advertisement controls listed above.

Article Seventy-Nine:

Physicians who work in private-sector health establishments or specialized clinics should avoid to advertise the services offered by these establishments in statements in the mass media, papers or articles they write, and the like.

Supporting Islamic Legal Evidence:

The purposes of Islamic Law of self preservation and protection of personal honor should be applied.

Islamic Center of Southern California