Fatwa ID: 06882

Answered by: Maulana Abdul Malik

Question:

Hi, me and my wife tried everything for the last five years for a child but when no treatment responded the doctor advised us to IVF and we got our first child six years after the marriage with IVF.

Now the doctor is advising us to freeze my wife’s egg so that if we want another baby in future, it can be fused with my sperm and simply put in my wife’s uterus. As the fertility of my wife is not good and we have to undergo IVF for our first child also, will it be fine Islamically if I preserve my wife’s egg so that if in future, we can’t conceive naturally, that egg can be fused with my sperm and put in her uterus for growth i.e. IVF again.

Although we will try naturally or through iui and pray that we don’t have to go for IVF again, just to be on the safer side, can J get eggs frozen so that they can be used for the baby if we can’t conceive naturally or through iui?

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

Answer:

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the joining of a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm in a laboratory dish. This procedure is undertaken when there are difficulties in conceiving naturally.

Allah states in the holy Quran: “To Allah (alone) belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. He creates whatever He wills. He blesses whoever He wills with daughters, and blesses whoever He wills with sons, or grants both, sons and daughters, (to whoever He wills), and leaves whoever He wills infertile. He is indeed All-Knowing, Most Capable. (Quran, chapter 42, verses 49-50)[1]

Procreation is one of marriage’s goals. Allah’s will determines whether a woman will become pregnant. However, if a couple is in desperate need of a child and has tried everything to conceive naturally, they may turn to the (IVF) technique under the condition that the sperm and eggs used for fertilization belong to the husband and wife.

[1] لِّلَّهِ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَآءُ ۚ يَهَبُ لِمَن يَشَآءُ إِنَـٰثًۭا وَيَهَبُ لِمَن يَشَآءُ ٱلذُّكُورَ

أَوْ يُزَوِّجُهُمْ ذُكْرَانًۭا وَإِنَـٰثًۭا ۖ وَيَجْعَلُ مَن يَشَآءُ عَقِيمًا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ عَلِيمٌۭ قَدِيرٌۭ

[2] المشقة تجلب التيسير

Only Allah Knows Best

Written by Maulana Abdul Malik

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham