Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discusses rulings on committing murder, clinical death
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Saturday, the 16th of Jumadi al-Thani. In this session, just like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discussed the rulings of murder, and said: In committing murder, the permanent criterion for ruling is the perpetrator, the person who actually carries out the murder, unless the cause of the killing is stronger than the person committing it, for example, when the perpetrator of murder is an insane person, a non-Mukallaf immature person, or an animal, otherwise, the criterion in rulings is always the responsible person, i.e. the perpetrator of the murder.
His Eminence said in relation to the murders that take place on the orders of the ruler: If the ruler orders a murder, it is a different matter, and in this case, the killing may be permissible and even obligatory in some cases.
Regarding the murders that are carried out by the order of a tyrannical ruler, he said: If the tyrannical ruler orders a person to commit killing, and in the process, a person is unjustly killed, then the person responsible for the killing, meaning the perpetrator of the killing, is considered a murderer, and he/she will have to undergo retribution or pay blood money an obligation, if the murder was carried out intentionally.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi also discussed the ruling on organ donation for people who have suffered brain death, and said: Organ donation for someone who has suffered brain death, referred to as clinical death, is not permissible, because in this situation, complete death has not taken place.
