MUSCAT: The Royal Hospital marked May 20 as the Medical Ethics Scientific Day. The event was held under the auspices of Dr Said bin Harib al Lamki, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Health for Health Affairs.
The event was organised as part of the Ministry of Health’s direction toward strengthening evidence-based governance and integrating ethical and legal dimensions into daily medical practice, contributing to improved quality of care and enhanced patient safety.
In her opening remarks, Dr Rukaya al Dhahri, Chair of the Medical Ethics Committee at the Royal Hospital, emphasised that medical ethics is no longer a purely theoretical framework confined to committees, but has become an active practice that supports clinical decision-making in critical moments, and a key indicator of institutional performance quality.
Al Dhahri explained that the challenge in modern medicine no longer lies in limited resources, but rather in the increasing breadth and complexity of available options, which calls for stronger ethical frameworks to ensure balanced decision-making that combines scientific accuracy with humanitarian considerations.
The Scientific Day aimed to explore the critical intersections between clinical decision-making and the legal framework. The sessions addressed several key themes, including the foundations of clinical ethics, medical decision-making in the Sultanate of Oman covering capacity, surrogate decision-making, and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders, as well as ethical lessons drawn from judicial rulings in medical cases and confidentiality in adolescent medicine.
The programme also included real-life case studies and ethical insights in organ transplantation, along with end-of-life decision-making in palliative care.
The event featured speakers from the Medical Ethics Committee at the Royal Hospital, alongside experts and members of the National Bioethics Committee, who presented advanced scientific analyses of real clinical cases.
These cases were examined from medical, ethical, and legal perspectives, reflecting a shift from theoretical discussion to practical application in managing ethical complexity within the healthcare environment. — ONA
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