Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART): Legal Framework for Surrogate Parenting under Islamic Law

Abstract

When a man and a woman enter matrimonial relationship, it is expected that the union will procreate and raise children. So many marriages have fall-short of this expectation, making the life of couple miserable. To assist couple overcomes such misery, biotechnology came up with certain innovations through assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and surrogacy is one of them. Couple makes surrogate arrangement when conceiving a child is medically impossible or when it is deemed dangerous to the to-be mother. Surrogate parenting also allows post-menopausal women or unproductive women, career women, etc become mothers 
and bear children, even though they have no heritable relationship to the child. Under Islamic Law, family bond, matrimonial relations, and parent and child connection are very crucial when discussing surrogate parenting. The permissibility or otherwise of surrogacy is dependent on the interpretation and application of Islamic principles to the circumstances, thus, Muslim Jurist have divergent views on the issue. Adopting the doctrinal research methodology, this paper underscores the legal, moral, ethical, and religious challenges involved in surrogate parenting under Islamic law. The paper argued that although this scientific breakthrough raises hope to barren women that they too can be productive, the altering of human nature gives rise to several issues that are beyond human comprehension and with far-reaching consequences under Islamic law. The paper concluded that the acceptability of surrogate parenting under Islamic Law is subject to conditions that it does not infringe the sacredness of matrimonial relation and preservation of lineage.