Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Seven

Surgical Contraception

(Sterilization)

Definition

This refers to a surgical operation that permanently ends a woman's or a man's ability to have children, but does not affect sexual desire or performance. The surgical procedure in the case of a man involves tying the sperm ducts, and in the case of a woman, it involves tying or cutting the Fallopian tubes. Other contraceptive methods may be used.

The Legal Position Chosen by the IOMS and Its Argument

In its first seminar, the one on Reproduction, of 1983, the IOMS adopted, on the question of surgical contraception (sterilization), the argument supported by the majority of participants, which is the permission of sterilization. One of the recommendations of the seminar is as follows:

Surgical contraception is lawful on the individual level in cases of necessity as determined by a Muslim trustworthy physician and when other alternatives have been exhausted.

On the level of the Islamic nation at large, it is unlawful, and the seminar denounces turning sterilization into a general campaign and warns against its exploitation in demographic wars that aim at turning Muslims into minorities in their own countries or in the world as a whole. Islamic Center of Southern California