Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Thirty One

Skin Grafts

Definition

Skin grafting is resorted to for the treatment of disfigurations caused by accidents, burns, and surgical operations which require skin removal.

Skin grafting is a procedure by which skin is transplanted from a healthy area to an injured one. The body supplies the graft with blood after forming a network of blood vessels and capillaries.

The transplanted graft may be taken from a healthy area of the patient's own skin, from another person, or from an animal.

Skin cells can be cultivated by taking a small piece of the patient's skin. Cultivation is achieved by using nutritious and chemical agents and preservatives in a gradual manner. The procedure may take about two weeks, at the end of which a skin patch is formed that can be as big as 75 cm2. This very recent method is not commonly used because it is highly expensive and requires training that is available in few centers only.

The Legal Position Chosen by the IOMS and Its Argument

The IOMS, in its eighth seminar in 1995, permitted skin grafting procedures under the same conditions set for human organ transplants. The recommendations of the seminar say:

1. A human being, whether Muslim or non-Muslim enjoys personal sanctity. Honoring a human being and maintaining his sanctity is one of the purposes of Islamic Law. Therefore, skin grafting surgery is permissible under certain conditions which will be listed later and which are not in conflict with that purpose, but rather support and affirm it.

2. The skin is a living organ, and what applies to the transfer and transplantation of other organs, as decided by jurisprudence (fiqh) academies, applies to it.

5. Operations of skin grafting, where the source of the graft is human, is a necessity in the eyes of Islamic Law, and rulings that concern it are subject to the general rules that govern necessities.

4. A skin graft from a human source, whether an autograft, taken from the patient himself, or an allograft, taken from an alive or dead human being, is legally free from ritual impurity.

5. The permissibility of skin grafting operations are contingent upon the following conditions:

a. Skin grafting should be the only available method to treat the patient.

b. In the case of a living donor, skin removal should not cause an injury equal to or greater than the injury suffered by the recipient.

c. Success of the grafting procedure should be expected.

d. The acquisition of the human graft should not be through purchase, coercion, or beguilement. Still, when the patient who needs the graft cannot find a donor, he may use money to get it.

6. Skin grafts from a properly slaughtered animal, whose flesh is permitted to Muslims, are a source permitted by Islamic Law.

7. Skin grafts from a dead or an impure living animal are unlawful to use except in cases of necessity.

8. Skin grafts from a pig are unlawful to use except in cases of necessity and when no legally permitted alternative is available. Islamic Center of Southern California