to uncover herself before someone other than her husband for the purpose of treatment, and even then such exposure must be confined to the bare extent required by necessity.
(c) Whenever a woman is permitted—on the basis of a legitimate need—to expose herself before a man with whom sexual relations are unlawful, the physician must, in the following order of preference, be: a Muslim woman, then a non-Muslim woman, then a trustworthy Muslim man, and finally, if none of the above is available, a non-Muslim man.
Private seclusion between the practitioner and the female patient is not allowed unless her husband or another woman is present.
Second: The ruling on artificial fertilization
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The need of a married woman who cannot conceive—and her husband’s corresponding desire for a child—is a legitimate purpose that permits her treatment by any lawful method of artificial fertilization.
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The first method—where sperm is taken from a married man and injected into the uterus of his own wife by means of intrauterine insemination—is legally permissible, subject to the general conditions mentioned earlier, once the woman’s need for the procedure in order to conceive has been established.
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The third method—where the sperm and ovum are taken from a husband and his wife, fertilized outside the body in a test tube, and the resulting embryo is then implanted into the uterus of the same wife from whom the ovum was taken—is, in principle, acceptable under Islamic law. However, it is not entirely free of doubts arising from the requirements and circumstances that surround it. Therefore, it should be resorted to only in cases of extreme necessity and after all of the general conditions noted above have been satisfied.
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The seventh method—where the sperm and the ovum are taken from a married couple—