Bioethics is usually rendered in Arabic as akhlāqiyyāt ṭibbiyya and in Persian as akhlāqiyyāt-i pizishkī , both meaning "medical ethics." 1. History of Islamic bioethics institutions The institutional framework guiding Muslim bioethical deliberations developed in three phases. Until the 1970s, bioethical issues were addressed only by individual scholars or by national fatwā offices. Thematically, the discussion was limited to questions relating to contraception and abortion (several governments in Muslim-majority countries introduced birth-control programs in the 1960s). In a second phase (late 1970s to 1980s), several international institutions of