Medical Issues: What Does “Necessity” Mean in Permitting Male Doctors to Examine Women?

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Medical Issues: What Does “Necessity” Mean in Permitting Male Doctors to Examine Women?

English:

Question #1287:

We have noticed the recurrence of the use of the word “necessity” as a condition to allow the examining doctor to touch or look at the body of a woman. What does it mean and what are its limits?

Answer #1287:

What makes it necessary to look at or touch a woman’s body is confined to what the diagnosis and treatment of the illness require. As to its limits, it is judged by the degree of the need for it.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Medical Issues