ESPU Congress 2018 - Abstract Book

6 29 th CONGRESS OF THE ESPU He was very innovative and made many contributions to urology. Especially significant for our field of interest are: • Balloon catheter 1921–37 • Ipsilateral uretero-ureterostomy 1928 • Y-V Pyeloplasty 1937 • Artificial sphincter 1946 His life and accomplishments will be discussed in this presentation. 18:13–18:28 HS-5 (LO) INFORMED CONSENT FOR A PEDIATRIC UROLOGICAL PROCEDURE IN 16 TH CENTURY Nil TEKGUL  1 and Serdar TEKGUL  2 1) Harvard University, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge, USA - 2) Hacettepe University, Department of Urology, Div of Pediatric Urology, Sihhiye Ankara, TURKEY ABSTRACT The script presented dating October 27 th 1575 is retrieved from judicial court registers of Bursa, Turkey. As evidenced from this case, the father of a boy officially declared at the court, in front of the witnesses and the “kadi” (judge), that he had given his consent to Huseyin bin Mehmed (a skillful surgeon in his field) to do a medical intervention to his son who is suffering from hard and painful mass in the groin (most probably a testicular torsion or strangulated hernia). He also confirmed that if anything happens to his son during and after surgery he would not sue the surgeon or hold him responsible. Similar approvals of the patients given to their physicians regarding medical interventions are re- corded in Ottoman judicial court registers from early 16 th century. Such cases of official approval are usually termed as “informed consents” (riza senedi) by modern scholars due to their resemblance to today’s concept of “informed consent” for basically two reasons. Under Islamic criminal law, provisions regarding offences against persons, i.e. homicide and wounding, belonged to the field of private law; hence, the victim or the victim’s heirs may demand retaliation (qisas) if the killing or wounding was intentional or financial compensation (diyet- blood money). Therefore, the surgeons demanded an official consent from their patients to secure themselves from any financial liabilities. This paper, by utilizing Ottoman judicial court records with a specific focus on pediatric urological cases, examines the cases of medical interventions in which the patients give their consent to their surgeons. It aims to shed light on the motivations of the patients in giving their consent and furthermore understand medico-legal practices during the Ottoman pre-modern era.