Resolution of the Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy on Artificial Insemination and Test-Tube Babies:
All praise belongs to Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon our master and Prophet, Muhammad ﷺ.
To proceed:
The Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy has examined the study submitted by Council member Mustafa Ahmad al-Zarqa on artificial insemination and test-tube babies—an issue that has preoccupied the public and become one of the most talked-about questions worldwide. The Council reviewed the medical advances that contemporary science and technology have achieved in this area for the purpose of human procreation and for overcoming the various causes of infertility that impede conception.
From that comprehensive study the Council learned that artificial insemination intended to achieve pregnancy through a means other than the natural route—namely, direct sexual intercourse between husband and wife—takes one of two basic forms:
-
Internal insemination, in which the husband’s sperm is injected into the appropriate location within the wife’s body.
-
External insemination, in which the husband’s sperm and the wife’s ovum are combined in a test tube in a medical laboratory, after which the fertilized ovum (the embryo) is implanted in her uterus.
Both procedures necessarily involve the exposure of the woman’s body to the person performing the operation.
The Council also determined from the submitted study, and from the ensuing deliberations and discussions, that the practical methods used for artificial insemination—whether internal or external—for the purpose of conception amount in reality to seven distinct techniques: two pertaining to internal insemination and five to external insemination, irrespective of their permissibility or prohibition under the Sharia, and they are: