Artificial Insemination and Surroga...

Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta

Artificial Insemination and Surrogacy

Question

no. 95 for the year 2006 which includes an inquiry about the ruling for Artificial Insemination, IVF and surrogacy.

Answer

IVF

Conceiving by fertilizing the wife's egg by her husband's sperm outside the womb and then returning the fertilized embryo to the wife's womb is legally permissible under the following conditions:

o It is ascertained without doubt that the sperm sample and the egg both come from the husband and wife and that the fertilized egg is returned to the wife's womb without the samples being mixed with any other.
o There must be a medical necessity for this procedure such as one of the spouses suffering from a condition that prevents conception except through such methods.
o The procedure must be performed under the supervision of a proficient and trustworthy physician.

Surrogacy

Surrogacy is prohibited. The Islamic Research Assembly has issued decree no. 1, dated 29/3/2001 prohibiting surrogacy as did contemporary scholars. The reason for this is that the involvement of a third party, the surrogate mother, makes it difficult to determine who the real mother of the child is. Who has more right to the child: the biological mother from whom the egg was retrieved and who consequently passed on her genetic characteristics to the child, or the gestational carrier who carried the fetus to term? Other issues necessitating prohibition include confusion over lineage, overlapping of rights, undermining the natural process of procreation and contravening the purpose of Islamic law in establishing stability and ending strife between contesting parties as much as possible.

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