Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Ten

The Inception of Human Life

(The Point and the Stage at Which Fetal Life becomes Human)

Definition

From the moment of its birth, an infant is unanimously referred to as a human being, an actual member of the human race. This is based on a tradition attributed to the Prophet by Abu Dawood which says, "As soon as it is born, a baby is entitled to inheritance." Before that, it is a fetus in its mother's abdomen, but it starts to grow from the moment of insemination, until spirit is breathed into it. Its organs assume their full form, and then it is born. from the moment of insemination, an embryo is entitled to certain rights, which are reaffirmed and added to as spirit is breathed into it. Between the beginning of life and the breathing of the spirit, Jurisprudence (fiqh) scholars are at some loss as to determining the rights of an embryo and the rulings related to it. So where do we start in determining these rights and rulings?

The Legal Position Chosen by the IOMS and Its Argument

In both the first and second seminars of the IOMS in 1983 and 1985 (on Reproduction and on Human Life: Its Inception and End), agreement was reached that an embryo is entitled to respect and has sanctity from the moment of insemination, and that this sanctity increases at the time of spirit breathing.

Meanwhile, the fifth seminar, Health Policy: Ethics and Moral Values, held in 1988, did not make any recommendations, although it addressed the question in its papers and discussions.

1. The recommendations of the second seminar, held in 1985 to discuss Human Life: Its Inception and End, say:

First: The inception of life occurs with the union of a sperm and an ovum, forming a zygote which carries the full genetic code of the human species in general and of the particular individual, who is different from all others throughout the ages. The zygote begins a process of cleavage that yields a growing and developing embryo, which progresses through the stages of gestation until birth.

Second: From the moment a zygote settles in a woman's body, it deserves a unanimously-recognized degree of respect, and several legal stipulations, known to scholars, apply to it.

Third: When it arrives at the spirit-breathing stage, the time of which is subject to controversy, being either forty or 120 days, the fetus acquires greater sanctity, as all scholars agree, and additional legal stipulations apply to it.

Fourth: Among the most important of these stipulations are those that govern abortion as pointed out in Article Seven of the recommendations of the seminar on "Reproduction in Islam."

2. Earlier, the recommendations of the Reproduction seminar in 1983 included the following:

Benefiting from a review of contemporary medical and scientific advances as established by modern medical research and technology - the seminar concludes that an embryo is a living organism from the moment of conception, and its life is to be respected in all its stages, especially after the spirit is breathed in. Aggression against it, in the form of abortion, is unlawful except in cases of maximum medical necessity. Some participants, however, disagree and believe abortion before the fortieth day, particularly when there is justification, is lawful. Islamic Center of Southern California