Fatwa ID: 02779

Answered by:  Maulana Imran Mughal

Question:

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah

We understand that surrogate motherhood is impermissible in Islam. However, would it still be the case if it was between two wives in a polygamous relationship? e.g Wife 1 has an egg but is unable to conceive,

Wife 2 – can carry a baby to term, the husband fertilises the egg from wife 1 and asks wife 2 to carry it, for wife 1 as she is unable to. Would this type of IVF Surrogate Motherhood be permissible?
 

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatuh

Surrogate motherhood has posed many difficult questions upon Islam in recent years. The Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy reviewed the different angles and facets of surrogate motherhood in-depth, by consulting physicians and scholars on the matter.

They concluded that there are seven known ways for artificial insemination whereby the first five of them are prohibited according to the Shariah and the last two are permissible.

1.    The fertilization taking place between the sperm taken from the husband and the eggs taken from a woman who is not his wife, and then the fertilized ovum being implanted into the womb of his wife.

2.    The fertilization taking place between the sperm taken from a man who is not the husband and the eggs taken from the wife, and then the fertilized ovum being implanted into the womb of the wife.

3.    The fertilization taking place in-vitro between the sperm and the eggs taken from the spouses, and then the fertilized ovum being implanted into the womb of a volunteer woman (i.e. surrogate motherhood).

4.    The fertilization taking place in-vitro between the sperm of a man and eggs of a woman who are both strangers to one another, and then the fertilized ovum being implanted into the womb of another man’s wife.

5.    The fertilization taking place in-vitro between the sperm and the eggs taken from the spouses, and then the fertilized ovum is implanted into the womb of the husband’s other wife.

6.    The sperm of the husband and the eggs of the wife are taken and fertilized in-vitro, and then the fertilized ovum is implanted into the womb of the wife.

7.    Artificial insemination, by taking the sperm of the husband and inserting it in the appropriate place of his wife’s womb, for fertilization.^[1]

Only Allah Ta’ala knows best

Written by Maulana Imran Mughal

Checked and approved by Ustadha Sabrina al-Faarsiyyah

Darul Ifta Birmingham

^[1] Abdel Hak, Qararat wa Tawsiyyaat Majma’ al-Fiqh al-Islamiy , 30.