donor: if you donate one of your kidneys and then the other fails, you will perish; thus, you would be the cause of your own destruction. As for the other person who requested it, if we leave him and he dies, then Allah, Most High, has caused him to die, and we bear no responsibility for him. Do not be deceived by rational notions of what is good, for any such notion that contradicts the Sacred Law is not truly good. Whatever conflicts with the Sacred Law is not good, even if some people embellish it. One must inevitably return to the Sacred Law.
As for drawing an analogy between this and taking blood, that is an invalid analogy, because as soon as blood is taken, it is immediately replaced, whereas an organ, once removed, does not return. This is an analogy with a relevant difference.
Question: If a man’s kidney has failed and he finds what is called a kidney bank, may he buy one? Yes, he may, because these kidneys have now been removed from their owners and cannot be restored; thus, it is permissible to buy them.
If someone asks: What if it is between the stage of the sperm-drop and the breathing of the soul into it—for example, it is a blood clot or a lump of flesh, but the soul has not been breathed into it—and we are compelled to induce its delivery because, were it to remain in its mother’s womb, her death would be feared? Should we induce its delivery or not? We say: in this case, we induce its delivery, because the soul has not yet been breathed into it. Thus, if the doctors say that there is a ninety-percent likelihood that the mother may die, we say: there is nothing wrong with this, because it does not involve killing a human soul. Therefore, if the fetus at this stage were delivered from its mother’s womb, it would not be washed, shrouded, or prayed over. Rather, a hole would be dug for it anywhere and it would be buried, because it has not yet become a human being, nor will it be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection. Reflect on this in His saying, Most High: “O mankind, if you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then indeed We created you from dust.”