Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Religious Dilemmas

Theology and Science

During the last few decades, infertility has been discussed as a socio-cultural and medical dilemma. Infertile couples attempt to overcome this problem, including using assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). Similar to other groups, Muslims struggle with various aspects of infertility and its treatments, trying to reconcile the use of ARTs with the regulations in respect of the socio-cultural, legal, ethical, economic, and political factors of their community. Religion usually plays a significant role in the governance of medically assisted reproduction. This paper describes the Islamic intellectuals' permissive and restrictive opinions on modern ARTs and ethics in the Islamic context.

Al-Qamar, 2020

This article presents a comparative analysis of the biomedical and Islamic view points on the concepts of marriage as an institution of reproduction, infertility and the need and necessity to carry out and put into service contemporary Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ARTs) when the spouses are affected with the full or partial infertility. There is a common connotation that the Sharī'ah rejects all forms of ARTs but this research nullifies this assumption and gives rational reasons when a technique is rejected and provides reasons too when any such technique is accepted under Islamic law. ARTs like Artificial Insemination, In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Donor Eggs and Donor Sperms, Surrogacy and Cloning have been discussed in the light of Sharī'ah rulings in order to examine the conditions for their permissibility by evaluating their nature and medical process.

Ghaly M, El Akoum M, Abd El Hadi A, Yousuf A: The struggle to conceive: An Islamic approach. Doha, Qatar: World Innovation Summit for Health, 2020

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have benefited many couples worldwide. Biomedical scientists have been working on medical and scientific issues to improve the safety and efficacy of these new technologies. At the same time, ethicists have been grappling with the related moral complexities and questions to ensure that people who are assisted to have children will not be forced to compromise their core values or principles. As in other places in the world, many Arab and Muslim countries benefited from the revolution in ARTs. Parallel to these developments, Muslim religious scholars collaborated with biomedical scientists to address the related moral questions from an Islamic perspective. This interdisciplinary collaboration produced a rich religio-moral discourse on ARTs. This study is aimed at healthcare professionals who work in the ART field, especially those who work in the Muslim world, or who have patients with a Muslim background. The report concludes that, while the questions raised by ARTs inspire diverse opinions across the Islamic moral tradition, there is agreement on some of the major issues. We hope that this study will benefit healthcare professionals and their patients by helping healthcare policymakers and legislators fill the gaps in existing legislation, and develop regulatory frameworks that align with the religioethical fabric of Muslim societies. Section 1 of the report gives an historical overview of ARTs in Qatar and the Gulf Region. Section 2 focuses on the Islamic ethical perspectives and delineates the overall moral world of procreation in the Islamic tradition, and examines how far ARTs are compatible with this moral world. Section 3 presents our key recommendations and conclusions.

2008

Assisted reproductive technology is widely practised around the world for the treatment of virtually all forms of infertility. The application of this technology in the Islamic world had been delayed for many years, based on the misconception that Islamic teachings do not approve assisted reproduction. The paper discusses derivation of Islamic rulings and its impact on the ethics of contemporary issues, including family formation and assisted reproduction. It clearly shows that Islam encourages family formation and assisted reproduction, when indicated, within the frame of marriage. It also discusses differences among Muslim sects, Sunni and Shi'aa. The paper also discusses Islamic rulings on the new emerging practices in assisted reproduction, including surrogacy, multifetal pregnancy reduction, cryopreservation, pregnancy in the postmenopausal period, sex selection and embryo implantation following the husband's death. The moral status of the embryo in Islam is discussed. Organ differentiation and ensoulment are believed to occur at 42 days after fertilization at the earliest. As individuation of the embryo does not occur before 14 days from fertilization, research on surplus embryos during this period is allowed. Similarly, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, gene therapy and non-reproductive cloning for the benefit of humanity are ethically acceptable in Islam. This information should help physicians in their decision before conscientious objection to offering various modalities of assisted reproduction to their infertile patients.

The traditional notion of childbirth has been radicalised with the emergence of ARTs and considerable advancement in the field of embryology and bio-medics in which IVF is one of them. This innovation came about as a result of the need to cure infertility. This modern act of procreation is has been proven as a cure as over 5 million babies have been birthed through IVF. Religion is one of the basic factors in the society used in the regulation of human activities and Islamic Law as a religion deals with the regulation of the total affairs of its adherents which is why this article is important to educate muslims that would want to take advantage of IVF treatment as to the extent of the permissibility and its use. Oppositions were made by some classical jurists of Islamic law as to the permissibility of this medical innovation. To them, God is the creator of lives and will grant a child to whom he wills as at and when due. Thus, the use of IVF is disapproved due to the possibility of its abuse and the taking up of the act of playing God. In this article, efforts were made to place the arguments in support of this medical invention vis-a-vis rules made by Islamic councils regulating the procedure. In conclusion, the Islamic law position on seeking of cure for ailments is linked with the use of IVF and seen to have served as a basis for the admissibility of the treatment.

Addaiyan Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences , 2020

This scholarly article discusses the view of Islamic Sharia law pertaining to artificial insemination. Artificial insemination, as one of the contemporary medical issues, was not in existence in the era of Sharia jurisprudents. It emerged in the last century as a result of scientific and medical developments; as its first successful experience in the field was performed in the UK in 1977 on the birth of a baby girl called Louise Brown. The practice later proliferated in other western countries, even surpassing its legitimate aim of treating infertile couples, as it began to entail businesses such as womb comodification, the establishment of sperm banks, and the like. Keywords: artificial insemination, Islamic jurisprudence, medical discovery, infertility, and treatment.

International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 2001

A November 2000 workshop organized by the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research, Ž . Al-Azhar University, Cairo, considered use of assisted reproduction technologies ART in the Islamic world. The workshop reinforced a 1997 recommendation that a Standing Committee for Shari'a Medical Ethics be constituted to monitor and assess developments in ART practice. Among issues the workshop addressed were equitable access to services for infertile couples of modest means, and regulation of standards of equipment and personnel that ART centers should satisfy to gain approval to offer services. Acceptable uses of preimplantation genetic diagnosis were proposed, and follicular maturation research in animals, including in vitro maturation and in vitro growth of oocytes, was encouraged, leading to human applications. Embryo implantation following a husband's death, induced postmenopausal pregnancy, uterine transplantation and gene therapy were addressed and human reproductive cloning condemned, but cloning human embryos for stem cell research was considered acceptable. ᮊ

Contemporary Bioethics, 2015

Reproductive biomedicine online, 2008

Honorary Citizen of City of Jerusalem. President of International Academy of Human Reproduction. Previously he was Chairman of the IFFS and FIGO ethical committee; currently he is Chairman of the Ethical Committees of both the World Association of Perinatal Medicine and the International Society of In Vitro Fertilization. His main interests are experimental and clinical studies in the field of endocrinology of human reproduction and related ethical aspects. He has more than 550 publications in medical journals, chapters and several books.

2021

A ssisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have changed our understanding of procreation in drastic and fundamental ways. Most importantly, by transforming reproduction from being a natural in vivo function into a technical in vitro process, ARTs have introduced solutions to many infertility problems and increased the degree of control over the results of that process. They have equally raised numerous ethical, legal, and social questions that demand serious reflection and require the revision of a wide range of family-related concepts, laws, and doctrines. Within the Muslim context, Islamic law has always played an important role in the development of ethical norms, especially ones that inform practical questions facing individuals in their lived realities. Fatwas have served as the main mechanism through which qualified jurists address ethical-legal questions by articulating a sharīʿah position that reflects, in their opinion, divine will concerning related issues. By capturing and accommodating emerging societal needs, fatwas have been vital not only in the historical development of Islamic law but also in the ongoing reformulation of Islamic legal rules. Fatwas are generally considered the most important resource for religious-legal guidance, particularly for new and novel questions including ones in the area of biomedicine. One of the important fatwas that deal with assisted reproductive technologies was issued in 1980 by the former rector of al-Azhar Sheikh Jād al-Ḥaqq ʿAlī Jād al-Ḥaqq. 2 The fatwa is one of the ear