Ruling on donating eggs for artificial insemination
Question Recently my twin sister received a diagnosis of leukaemia, and her treatment was extremely painful and has made her unable to produce eggs, at the time when shortly before her diagnosis she and her husband were planning to start a family. Now all her hopes have been dashed. My question is: would it be…
Question
Praise be to Allah.
It is not permissible for a woman to donate eggs to be
fertilised with the sperm of anyone other than her husband, even if the
embryo will be implanted after that in the uterus of the sister of the
donor. The prohibition on this kind of fertilisation was issued in a
statement by the Islamic Fiqh Council in its statement no. 16 on Test-Tube
Babies. In that statement it says:
In the session of the International Islamic Fiqh Council that
was held during the third conference in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan, 8-13 Safar 1407 AH/11-16 October 1986 CE,
After presentation of papers on the topic of artificial
insemination (test-tube babies), and listening to the explanations of
experts and doctors, and after a discussion in which it was explained to the
council that the methods of artificial insemination that are known nowadays
are seven, the council determined the following:
Firstly: the five following methods of artificial
insemination are prohibited according to sharee‘ah and are completely
disallowed, in and of themselves, and because of what they result in of
mixing of lineages, confusion as to who is to be regarded as the mother, and
other matters that are contrary to Islamic teaching.
The first of these (prohibited) methods is where sperm taken
from the husband is used to fertilise an egg taken from a woman who is not
his wife, then the embryo is implanted in the uterus of his wife. End
quote.
We have limited our quotation here to the case asked about in
the question. See: Qaraaraat Majma‘ al-Fiqh al-Islami (p. 74 –
published by the Qatari Ministry of Awqaaf).
So it is not permissible for you to donate your eggs to your
sister, but you should offer a great deal of supplication for your sister
and she should also offer a great deal of supplication; she should not
despair of the mercy of Allah, may He be exalted, and she should take
practical measures to seek treatment, for Allah, may He be glorified and
exalted, has power over all things, and He blessed His Prophet Ibraaheem
with children after he grew old, as He, may He be glorified, also did for
His slave Zakariyyah (peace be upon them both.
And Allah knows best.
