The Court held that, in determining whether to authorize a Muslim man to take a second wife under Rule 11 of the Malaysia Muslim Marriage and Divorce Rules 1968, an objective test, rather than a subjective test, should be used. It ruled that, whether "a husband is competent to support more than one wife and will be able, if he marries more than one wife, to treat them with equity in accordance with the Muslim law" should be established by objective evidence, not merely by a husband's statement that he can support both wives and will treat them equitably. The Court allowed the appeal of the wife of the respondent against a decision of the Registrar of Muslim Marriages to allow the respondent to take a second wife.
The decision to terminate a pregnancy is not one that is taken lightly. The need for an abortion reflects limited sexual autonomy, ineffective or lack of access to contraceptive options, or a health indication. Abortion is protected under human rights law. That notwithstanding, access to abortions continues to be contested in many parts of the world, with vested interests from politically and religiously conservative states, patriarchal societies, and cultural mores, not just within local contexts but also within a broader geopolitical context. Criminalization of a women's choice not to carry a pregnancy is a significant driver of unsafe procedures, and even where abortions are provided legally, the policies remain constrained by the practice or by a lack of coherence. This review outlines the trends in abortion policy in low- and middle-income countries and highlights priority areas to ensure that women are safe and able to exercise their reproductive rights.
Different regulatory guidelines recommend establishing stability profile of pharmaceuticals at the time of drug development. The expiry date, retesting period and storage conditions of active drugs or products are established through stability analysis. Several regulatory guidelines exist for stability testing of pharmaceuticals. Mostly, ICH stability guidelines are followed in practice. This guideline recommends to validate stability indicating method using forced degradation samples that contains all possible degradation impurities. ICH guidelines provide general recommendations for inclusion of stability indicating parameters in a stability testing protocol. However, those guidelines do not provide specific requirements and experimental methodology to be followed for stability studies. Due to this gap, often confusion arises in the scientific community in designing stability testing protocol. Therefore, significant variations are observed in reported literature in selection of stability indicating parameters. Procedural dissimilarity amongst reported stability studies is also evident. This review discusses the regulatory guidelines and procedures to follow in performing stability testing of pharmaceuticals. Scope of this review also includes recommendations on practical approaches for designing stability testing protocol to fulfill current regulatory requirements for drug substances and their formulations.
In 1994, the Government of India enacted the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) to prevent commercial dealings in human organs. However, a greater number of scandals involving medical practitioners and others in the kidney trade has surfaced periodically in every state in India. The present regulatory system has failed mainly due to the misuse of Section 9(3) of the THOA, which approves the consent given by a live unrelated donor for the removal of organs for the reason of affection or attachment towards the recipient or for any other special reason. Currently in India, approximately 3500-4000 kidney transplants and 150-200 liver transplants are performed annually. However, the availability of organs from brain-dead persons is very low. As a result, live related or unrelated donors form the main source of organ transplantation. Therefore, physicians and policy-makers should re-examine the value of introducing regulated incentive-based organ donation to increase the supply of organs for transplantation and to end unlawful financial transaction.
Matched MeSH terms: Commerce/legislation & jurisprudence*; Tissue and Organ Procurement/legislation & jurisprudence*; Organ Transplantation/legislation & jurisprudence*
Malaysia disposes of 28,500 tonnes of municipal solid waste directly into landfills daily. This fact alone necessitates sustainable landfills to avoid adverse impacts on the population and the environment. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the issues and challenges faced by waste managers in moving towards sustainable landfilling in Malaysia. Various factors influence the management of a landfill. Among them is the human factor, which includes attitude and public participation. Although Malaysia's economy is developing rapidly, public concern and awareness are not evolving in parallel and therefore participation towards sustainable waste management through the 'reduce, reuse and recycle' approach (3Rs) is severely lacking. Consequently, landfill space is exhausted earlier than scheduled and this is no longer sustainable in terms of security of disposal. Challenges also arise from the lack of funding and the increase in the price of land. Thus, most waste managers normally aim for 'just enough' to comply with the regulations. Investment for the establishment of landfills generally is minimized since landfilling operations are considered uneconomical after closure. Institutional factors also hamper the practice of sustainable landfilling in the country where 3Rs is not mandatory and waste separation is totally absent. Although there are huge obstacles to be dealt with in moving towards sustainable landfilling in Malaysia, recent developments in waste management policy and regulations have indicated that positive changes are possible in the near future. Consequently, with the issues solved and challenges tackled, landfills in Malaysia can then be managed effectively in a more sustainable manner.
In 1981 the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes out of concern that inappropriate marketing of breastmilk substitutes was contributing to the alarming decline in breastfeeding worldwide and the increase in child malnutrition and mortality, particularly in developing countries.
Matched MeSH terms: Marketing of Health Services/legislation & jurisprudence*; Nutrition Policy/legislation & jurisprudence*; Infant Formula/legislation & jurisprudence*
To review how tobacco transnational companies conducted their business in the hostile environment of Singapore, attempting to counter some of the government's tobacco control measures; to compare the Malaysian and the Singaporean governments' stance on tobacco control and the direct bearing of this on the way the tobacco companies conduct their business.
OBJECTIVE: To describe tobacco industry efforts in Malaysia to thwart government efforts to regulate tobacco promotion and health warnings.
METHODS: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement and secondary websites; relevant information from news articles and financial reports.
RESULTS: Commencing in the 1970s, the industry began to systematically thwart government tobacco control. Guidelines were successfully promoted in the place of legislation for over two decades. Even when the government succeeded in implementing regulations such as health warnings and advertising bans they were compromised and acted effectively to retard further progress for years to come.
CONCLUSION: Counter-measures to delay or thwart government efforts to regulate tobacco were initiated by the industry. Though not unique to Malaysia, the main difference lies in the degree to which strategies were used to successfully counter stringent tobacco control measures between 1970 and 1995.
The medical practitioner has always had to juggle several roles. First and foremost, the doctor is a healer, a provider of curative services. Second, he is an examiner, an assessor of the patient's health status. Third, he is a researcher, always trying to push the boundaries of medical knowledge. Fourth, he is a rationer of services, he decides how best to apportion the limited resources at his disposal. Traditionally, the patient-doctor relationship has been largely exclusive in nature and the doctor would quite comfortably slip in and out of these roles, his focus centred on his patient's interests. In this era of large corporate health care providers, multi-billion-biotechnology industry, mammoth pharmaceutical companies, medical insurance schemes and international trade instruments, it has become increasingly difficult for the doctor to juggle these four roles. He is constantly subjected to conflicting demands. Patients' interests do not always come first anymore and patients are beginning to realise this. They no longer trust the medical profession unreservedly. There has been steady erosion of the patient-doctor relationship most clearly evidenced by the rising tide of litigation against doctors. There needs to be a reappraisal of these roles that the doctor plays. The conflicts must be recognised and addressed. Patients need to be informed and their interests must be protected if the doctor-patient relationship is to be restored. Medical malpractice suits are on the increase. The tort system as it exists is failing both doctors and patients. The question we must ask is what are patients looking for when they sue doctors? Most of the time they need compensation for the injuries suffered. Sometimes they are looking for accountability, they want the doctor to be punished in some way. Sometimes they merely want to air their grievances and know that they are heard. The current system more often than not takes too long to compensate, the process is a gamble and doctors who are clearly negligent quietly settle and are rarely censured. We need to revamp the existing system to allow for speedy and equitable compensation; true accountability; and articulation and auditing of standards of practice.
Matched MeSH terms: Delivery of Health Care/legislation & jurisprudence*; Malpractice/legislation & jurisprudence*; Internationality/legislation & jurisprudence*
The strategic location of Malaysia along the world's busiest trade waterways underscores the need to cope ballast water issues for both domestic and international shipping. The adoption of Ballast Water Management Convention 2004 (BWMC) by the International Maritime Organization is suitable for management plans intended to prevent the introduction of invasive species through ballast water discharge. Malaysia has ratified the BWMC in September 2010 and the Convention has come into force in September 2017. However up to now, the BWMC has not been fully implemented by Malaysia for ships operating in its waters. This paper analyse the headway in implementing the provisions of the BWMC in Malaysia as well as the issues and challenges encountered for the implementation. The paper concludes that Malaysian government should promulgate laws and policies to clearly communicate on ballast water issues to the shipping industry communities.
Matched MeSH terms: Water Pollution/legislation & jurisprudence; Water Purification/legislation & jurisprudence*; Environmental Policy/legislation & jurisprudence
SJV Chelvanayakam (1898-1977), a ranking civil lawyer and legislator, was probably the well known Parkinson disease victim in the 20th century Sri Lanka. He was born in Ipoh, Malaya, where his father had moved in the last decade of the 19th century for professional advancement. Ipoh was then an attractive location for migrants from China and the Indian subcontinent since it was in the Kinta valley--touted then, as the world's richest single tin field. Chelvanayakam was brought to Jaffna peninsula when he was aged four (in 1902 or 1903) by his mother, who returned to her native Tellipalai town partly due to indifferent health during her stay in Kinta region. In this communication, I present a hypothesis that organotin exposure as a foetus or during infancy at his place of birth is likely to have been a contributing factor to Chelvanayakam's Parkinsonism. It seems to fit the available circumstantial evidence.