is not practiced in foreign countries whose laws prohibit polygamy, nor even in those that permit it.

These, then, are the techniques of artificial fertilization that modern science has devised to address the various causes of infertility.

The Council of the Academy has reviewed what has been published and broadcast confirming that these procedures are already being carried out in Europe and America, where the achievements are put to many different uses: some commercial, others undertaken under the heading of “improving the human species,” and still others performed to satisfy the desire for motherhood felt by unmarried women, or by married women who cannot conceive because of a problem in themselves or in their husbands. To serve these diverse purposes, human sperm banks have been established in which men’s semen is preserved by technical means that keep it viable for fertilization over long periods; the samples are taken from identified or anonymous donors, whether freely given or supplied for a fee—along with all the other practices said to be taking place today in certain so-called civilized countries.

Legal assessment through the lens of Islamic law:

Accordingly, after examining the authenticated information at its disposal—everything that has been written and published on the subject—and after applying the principles and objectives of the Sharia in order to determine the ruling on the techniques presented and on what they entail, the Islamic Fiqh Council has reached the following detailed resolution:

First: General principles

(a) It is categorically impermissible for a Muslim woman to expose any part of her body to a man with whom sexual relations are forbidden, except for a legitimate purpose that the Sharia recognizes as sufficient cause for such exposure.

(b) A woman’s need for treatment of an ailment that harms her, or of an abnormal physical condition that causes her distress, constitutes a legitimate purpose that renders such exposure permissible for her.