Producing Parenthood: Islamic Bioethical Perspectives & Normative Implications

Abstract

Biomedicine has opened up new possibilities for parenthood. Once resigned to remaining childless or pursuing adoption, infertile couples can now pursue options such as gamete donation, in-vitro fertilization, and uterine transplantation, as well as surrogacy. Muslim thinkers have viewed these strategies with both promise and caution given new types of kinship and parenthood result. By drawing upon leading medical fiqh academy resolutions this paper critically analyses Islamic normative views on the production of parenthood. We start with an overview of the Sunni rulings on gamete donation, gestational surrogacy and uterus transplantation, and the rationale and scriptural sources that undergird these moral assessments. Next, we discuss the contested relational bonds in light of larger discussions on genetics and the preservation of lineage. Finally, we comment on how scientific data, social imaginaries, and empirical gaps impact Islamic normativity regarding the production of parenthood so as to inform more holistic Islamic bioethical assessments.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomedical technologies
• infertility
• religion
• gamete donation
• gestational surrogacy
• uterus transplantation

Acknowledgements

This paper was presented in partial form at the 7th International Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion Workshop ‘Protecting the Future Generation and the Ethics of Human Reproduction’ sponsored by the UNESCO Bioethics and Human Rights Chair in Casablanca Morocco in November 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Aasim I. Padela, MD MSc, is a clinician-researcher with scholarly interests at the intersection of religion, bioethics, and community health. Using Muslim Americans and Islam as a model he studies how religion impacts patient behaviors, clinician experiences, and informs bioethical discourse. His present work focuses on issues related to organ donation, end-of-life care, religious accommodations in healthcare, and theology and science.

Katherine Klima, DNP CNM, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, University of Chicago. Her research has focused on clinical implications of developments in reproductive technology from Islamic and secular bioethical perspectives.

Rosie Duivenbode, MD MSc, is physician-researcher at the Initiative on Islam and Medicine and a graduate student in religious studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her research interests center on the role of religion in bioethical thought and the medical decision making of Muslim patients and physicians.

Notes

1 There are two types of surrogacy arrangements. In gestational surrogacy the surrogate carries an embryo that is genetically unrelated to her. While in traditional surrogacy the surrogate is an ‘egg donor’ as well. In this paper we will focus on gestational surrogacy since ova donation is discussed separately.

2 Medical fiqh academies are transnational Islamic juridical councils that routinely bring together Islamic jurists and Muslim physicians to deliberate over pressing bioethics issues. In recent decades the most prominent bodies discussed in the Islamic bioethics literature are the International Organization for the Medical Sciences based in Kuwait (IOMS), the Islamic Fiqh Academy of the Muslim World League based in Makkah (IFA-MWL), and the Islamic Fiqh Academy of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation operating out of Jeddah (IFA-OIC). Other prominent councils include the Islamic Fiqh of India, the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), and the Malaysian National Fatwa Council (JAKIM).

3 It is beyond scope to discuss how contemporary notions of adoption and fostering align with Islamic laws and norms. Indeed the matter is much more complicated that the popular trope that Islam prohibits adoption. Rather, as will be noted in this paper, Islamic law recognizes the ‘right’ of a child to known their ancestry and inherit from their biological parents. Adoption regulations which fully replace biological ties with social ones, and negate these ‘rights’ are prohibited. At the same time, scholars find greater alignment between contemporary state law and Islamic regulations than Muslim publics often recognize. For greater discussion, as well as policy and practice guidelines, the reader is directed to Islamic Guidance on the Contemporary Practice of Adoption and Fostering in the UK by Zuber Karim available at https://pennyappeal.org/storage/app/media/appeals/Adoption%20and%20Fostering/Adoption%20and%20Fostering/Islamic%20Guide/FINAL%20Islamic%20Guidance%20on%20the%20Contemporary.pdf.

4 The term zina covers sexual intercourse between unwed individuals, individuals who are wedded to others, or between an unmarried individual and one who is married.

5 There is considerable juridical debate on the issue of organ donation and transplantation. Islamic jurists are divided on the issue of donation into three camps, one judging it to be prohibited, another prohibited but made contingently permissible when a dire necessity is present, and a third generally permitted if conditions are fulfilled [See Padela, A.I. and R. Duivenbode, (2018) The ethics of organ donation, donation after circulatory determination of death, and xenotransplantation from an Islamic perspective. Xenotransplantation, 25(3): p. 1-12.] Although much of the Islamic bioethics literature fails to differentiate between the moral status of donating and receiving, given that they are obviously connected, from a legal perspective the acts have different statuses. Some judge organ transplantation to be a permitted action just like as any other medical treatment, and it becomes elevated to the status of obligatory to seek only when the organ is life-saving. Others judge it to be generally prohibited act because organ donation is prohibited; however this prohibition can be overturned when life is at stake.

6 Genethics, initially used to describe the study of the ethical issues that arise out of the science of genetics and the uses of genetic technologies, has been broadened to encompass genomic science and technologies.