Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Eight

Abortion 74

Definition

Abortion is a woman's ejection of her fetus before it is sufficiently developed. It may occur naturally, as when caused by the woman's weakness for example, and it may be unnatural, as when it is deliberately induced. Often scholars refer to abortion by one of its synonyms, such as miscarriage, expulsion, ejection, or discharge. 75

The Legal Position Chosen by the IOMS and Its Argument

On the subject of abortion, The IOMS adopted, in its first seminar that was held in 1983 and dealt with reproduction, the opinion that considers abortion permissible, in cases of extremely pressing medical necessity, before the spirit is breathed into the fetus. This opinion was confirmed by the IOMS in its second seminar, Human Life: Its Inception and End as Viewed in Islam, in 1985. In its fourth seminar, Health Policy: Ethics and Values, the IOMS did not conclude its discussion of the papers on abortion with any recommendation.

The Seminar on Human Reproduction in Islam makes the following recommendation:

Going over the views expressed by earlier jurisprudence (fiqh) scholars, with the keen insight and sound judgment they demonstrate; noting that they unanimously forbid abortion after the spirit is breathed in, i.e. after the first four months of pregnancy, and that they differ over abortion before spirit is breathed in, with some opting for categorical prohibition or considering it reprehensible, and others prohibiting it after the first forty days and allowing it before that, with some difference over the necessity for justifying reasons; and 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 that abortion before the fortieth day, particularly when there is justification, is lawful.

The recommendations of the seminar of 1985, which dealt with the subject of Human Life, include the following:

From the moment a zygote settles inside a woman's body, it deserves a unanimously-recognized degree of respect, and a number of legal stipulations apply to it.

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.

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.

74 The Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences (IOMS) discussed this topic in three different seminars: the first seminar, the Seminar on Reproduction in Islam, in 1983; the second seminar, "Human Life: Its Inception and End as Viewed by Islam," in 1985; and the fourth, the Seminar on Health Policy: Ethics and Human Values from an Islamic Perspective, in 1988.

75 Dr. Tawfeeq Al-Wa'ii, "The Islamic Verdict on Abortion," The Seminar on Human Reproduction, p. 266; Dr. Sa'd Al-Hilaali, "The Ruling on Aborting a Rape Embryo," Journal of the College of Islamic Law in Kuwait, no. 41, p. 250. Islamic Center of Southern California