Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Five

The Surrogate Uterus

(Embryo Transplant)

Definition

A surrogate uterus is that of a volunteer or hired woman who offers her service to a wife wishing to have an ovum of hers, which is inseminated with her husband's semen, implanted in the surrogate uterus, so that the volunteer or hired woman would suffer the burden and pain pf pregnancy. This is done on condition that the born baby would be surrendered to the woman who has produced the ovum and whose uterus, in most cases, is incapable of supporting pregnancy. A test-tube baby is also referred to as "embryo transplant."

The Legal Position Chosen by the IOMS and Its Argument

1. In the seminar on Human Reproduction in Islam, the first IOMS seminar, the Organization adopted the view favored by the majority of scholars, which found the surrogate uterus procedure entirely unlawful. Under the title of "The Surrogate Uterus," a recommendation of the seminar says, "It is agreed that it [i.e. conception] is unlawful if it involves a third party, whether in the form of a sperm, ovum, fetus, or womb."

2. The IOMS reaffirmed this decision to forbid the surrogate uterus procedure in its tenth seminar, held in Casablanca in 1997. Its recommendations on cloning include the following: "All cases that involve a third party, foreign to the marital relationship, are unlawful, whether that party is in the form of a uterus, sperm, ovum, or a body cell intended to be cloned."

The Viewpoint of the Islamic Jurisprudence (fiqh) Academy

The point of view of the Jurisprudence (fiqh) Academy in Mecca coincides with the other tendency among scholars, which regards the surrogate uterus procedure permissible when it involves wives of the same man. Islamic Center of Southern California