Abstract
Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) have been practiced in Islamic societies within married couples since their introduction. However, there are divergent views over the issue of third-party donation among Sunni and Shia scholars. This paper illustrates the different perspectives of Shia Muslims surrounding, sperm, egg, and embryo donation and ethical aspects thereof. The study reveals that there are different views regarding sperm, egg, and embryo donation among the Shia religious leaders around the world. Many Shia religious scholars, including the Iranian supreme religious leader Ali Hussein Khamenei allow sperm, egg, and embryo donation with certain conditions. However, the conditions stipulated by Shia religious scholars contradict the ethical and legal practices of sperm, egg, and embryo donation. Regarding sperm and egg donation, they declared that the donor child would inherit from a third-party donor and the commissioning parents would be adoptive parents. Thus, according to them, donor anonymity is impossible. Moreover, the Iranian act on embryo donation did not stipulate the right and responsibilities of the donor child and recipient couples and did not clarify the nature and number of embryos that can be donated and implanted. The paper argues that the lack of laws and guidelines on sperm, egg, and embryo donation raises many ethical problems. Based only on religious rulings, third-party donation has been practiced without foreseeing the well-being and safety of donor children, donors, and recipient couples.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbasi-Shavazi, M. J., Inhorn, M. C., Razeghi-Nasrabad, H. B., & Toloo, G. (2008). The “Iranian ART Revolution” infertility, assisted reproductive technology, and third-party donation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 4(2), 1–28.
Abduljabbar, H. S., & Amin, R. (2009). Assisted reproductive technology in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Medical Journal, 30(4), 461–464.
Abedini, M., Ghaheri, A., & Samani, R. O. (2016). Assisted reproductive technology in Iran: The first national report on centers, 2011. International Journal of Fertility and Sterility, 10(3), 283.
Afshar, L., & Bagheri, A. (2013). Embryo donation in Iran: An ethical review. Developing World Bioethics, 13(3), 119–124.
Ahmadi, A., & Bamdad, S. (2017). Assisted reproductive technologies and the Iranian community attitude towards infertility. Human Fertility, 20(3), 204–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/14647273.2017.1285057
Al-Bar, M. A., & Chamsi-Pasha, H. (2015). Assisted reproductive technology: Islamic perspective. In C. Hassan & M. Ali Al-Bar (Eds.), Contemporary bioethics: Islamic perspective (pp. 173–186). New York: Springer.
Asplund, K. (2020). Use of in vitro fertilization—Ethical issues. Uppsala Journal of Medical Sciences, 125(2), 192–199.
Atighetchi, D. (2000). Islamic tradition and medically assisted reproduction. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 169(1), 137–141.
Bagheri, M., Jafarabadi, M., Rahimparvar, S. F. V., Nourbala, A. A., & Moghadam, Z. B. (2020). Concerns of infertile women candidates for egg donation: A qualitative study. Journal of Family and Reproductive Health, 14(1), 21.
Behjati-Ardakani, Z., Karoubi, M. T., Milanifar, A., Masrouri, R., & Akhondi, M. M. (2015). Embryo donation in Iranian legal system: A critical review. Journal of Reproduction and Infertility, 16(3), 130–137.
Bokek-Cohen, Y. A., Marey-Sarwan, I., & Tarabeih, M. (2021). Underground gamete donation in Sunni Muslim patients. Journal of Religion and Health, 61(4), 1–22.
Bou Assi, T., Jurjus, A., & Abou-Mrad, F. (2019). The legislative framework of gamete donation in Lebanon: Current status and future perspectives. Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, 10, 15–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2019.06.006
Brezina, P. R., & Zhao, Y. (2012). The ethical, legal, and social issues impacted by modern assisted reproductive technologies. Obstetrics and Gynecology International, 2012, 686253. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ogi/2012/686253/
Chien, S. (2020). Islamic beliefs on gamete donation: The impact on reproductive tourism in the Middle East and the United Kingdom. Clinical Ethics, 15(3), 148–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477750920927175
Clarke, M. (2007). Children of the revolution: ‘Ali Khamene’i’s ‘Liberal’ views on in vitro fertilization. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 34(3), 287–303.
Clarke, M. (2008). New kinship, Islam, and the liberal tradition: Sexual morality and new reproductive technology in Lebanon. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 14(1), 153–169.
Farid, M. S., & Schotsmans, P. (2014). Gamete donation: Ethical divergences in Islamic religious thinking. Asian Bioethics Review, 6(1), 23–38.
Gong, D., Liu, Y.-L., Zheng, Z., Tian, Y.-F., & Li, Z. (2009). An overview on ethical issues about sperm donation. Asian Journal of Andrology, 11(6), 645.
Gürtin, Z. B., Inhorn, M. C., & Tremayne, S. (2015). Islam and assisted reproduction in the Middle East: Comparing the Sunni Arab world, Shia Iran and secular Turkey. In S. D. Brown (Ed.), The changing world religion map sacred places, identities, practices and politics (pp. 3137–3153). New York: Springer.
Haeri, S. (2014). Law of desire: Temporary marriage in Shi’i Iran. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Harrison, C. (2014). Who is your mother? Who is your father? Assisted reproductive technologies in the light of Sunni and Shi’a law. Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies, 7(1), 23–36.
Homburg, R., Husain, F., Gudi, A., Brincat, M., & Shah, A. (2018). Religious attitudes to gamete donation. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 231, 204–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2018.10.051
Inhorn, M. C. (2005). Fatwas and ARTs: IVF and gamete donation in Sunni v. Shi’a Islam. Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, 9(1), 291.
Inhorn, M. C. (2006a). He won’t be my son. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 20(1), 94–120.
Inhorn, M. C. (2006b). Making Muslim babies: IVF and gamete donation in Sunni versus Shi’a Islam. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 30(4), 427–450.
Inhorn, M. C. (2011). Globalization and gametes: Reproductive ‘tourism’, Islamic bioethics, and Middle Eastern modernity. Anthropology and Medicine, 18(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2010.525876
Inhorn, M. C. (2018). Islam, sex, and sin: IVF ethnography as Muslim men’s confessional. Anthropological Quarterly, 91(1), 25–51.
Inhorn, M. C. (2020). The feminist ethnography of untested assumptions: Traveling with assisted reproductive technologies across the Muslim Middle East. In S. Fernstermaker, & A. J. Steward (Eds.), Gender, considered (pp. 297–332). New York: Springer.
Inhorn, M. C., & Birenbaum-Carmeli, D. (2008). Assisted reproductive technologies and culture change. Annual Review of Anthropology, 37, 177–196.
Inhorn, M. C., Birenbaum-Carmeli, D., Tremayne, S., & Gürtin, Z. B. (2017). Assisted reproduction and Middle East kinship: A regional and religious comparison. Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online, 4, 41–51.
Inhorn, M. C., Patrizio, P., & Serour, G. I. (2010). Third-party reproductive assistance around the Mediterranean: Comparing Sunni Egypt, Catholic Italy and multisectarian Lebanon. Reproductive Biomedicine Online, 21(7), 848–853.
Inhorn, M. C., & Tremayne, S. (2016). Islam, assisted reproduction, and the bioethical aftermath. Journal of Religion and Health, 55(2), 422–430.
Kelsay, J. (2003). Al-Shaybani and the Islamic law of war. Journal of Military Ethics, 2(1), 63–75.
Khan, M. A., & Konje, J. C. (2019). Ethical and religious dilemmas of modern reproductive choices and the Islamic perspective. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 232, 5–9.
Kooli, C. (2020). Review of assisted reproduction techniques, laws, and regulations in Muslim countries. Middle East Fertility Society Journal, 24(1), 1–15.
Landry, J.-M. (2019). Dialectic of Ijtihad: Reforming family law in contemporary Lebanon. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 39(3), 361–373.
Larijani, B., & Zahedi, F. (2007). Ethical and religious aspects of gamete and embryo donation and legislation in Iran. Journal of Religion and Health, 46(3), 399–408.
Margalit, Y. (2018). Temporary marriage: A comparison of the Jewish and Islamic conceptions. Journal of Law and Religion, 33(1), 89–107.
Mavani, H. (2014). Two Shi ‘i jurisprudential methodologies to address medical and bioethical challenges: Traditional Ijtihād and Foundational Ijtihād. Journal of Religious Ethics, 42(2), 263–284.
Meirow, D., & Schenker, J. G. (1997). The current status of sperm donation in assisted reproduction technology: Ethical and legal considerations. Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 14(3), 133.
Mitra, P. (2021). The beginning of life issues: An Islamic perspective. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(2), 663–683.
Moazam, F. (2011). Sharia law and organ transplantation: Through the lens of Muslim jurists. Asian Bioethics Review, 3(4), 316–332.
Moghimehfar, F., & Nasr-Esfahani, M. H. (2011). Decisive factors in medical tourism destination choice: A case study of Isfahan, Iran and fertility treatments. Tourism Management, 32(6), 1431–1434.
Naef, S. G. (2015). The Iranian embryo donation law and surrogacy regulations: The intersection of religion, law and ethics. Die Welt Des Islams, 55(3–4), 348–377.
Nosrati, S. F., Amirian, M., & Irani, M. (2019). Legal and religious counseling aspects of gamete donation in Iran: Review study. The Iranian Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Infertility, 22(6), 85–96.
Omani Samani, R., Ahmad, V. T. D., Reza, M., Moalem, R., Merghati, S. T., & Alizadeh, L. (2007). Access to fertility treatments for homosexual and unmarried persons, through Iranian law and Islamic perspective. Iranian Journal of Fertility and Sterility, 1(3), 127–130.
Padela, A. I., Klima, K., & Duivenbode, R. (2020). Producing parenthood: Islamic bioethical perspectives and normative implications. The New Bioethics, 26(1), 17–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/20502877.2020.1729575
Sallam, H., & Sallam, N. (2016). Religious aspects of assisted reproduction. Facts, Views and Vision in ObGyn, 8(1), 33.
Saniei, M., & Kargar, M. (2021). Modern assisted reproductive technologies and bioethics in the Islamic context. Theology and Science, 19(2), 146–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2021.1910914
Schenker, J. G. (2000). Women’s reproductive health: Monotheistic religious perspectives. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 70(1), 77–86.
Schenker, J. G. (2005). Assisted reproduction practice: Religious perspectives. Reproductive Biomedicine Online, 10(3), 310–319.
Serour, G. I. (2008). Islamic perspectives in human reproduction. Reproductive Biomedicine Online, 17, 34–38.
Tappan, R. (2012). More than Fatwas: Ethical decision making in Iranian fertility clinics. Islam and Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Sunni and Shia Perspectives, 23, 103–130.
Tremayne, S. (2012). The dilemma of assisted reproduction in Iran. Facts, Views and Vision in ObGyn, 70–74. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://fvvo.eu/assets/272/11-tremayne.pdf
Tremayne, S., & Akhondi, M. M. (2016). Conceiving IVF in Iran. Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online, 2, 62–70.
Weiss, B. (1978). Interpretation in lslamic law: The theory of Ijtihād. The American Journal of Comparative Law, 26(2), 199–212.
Whittaker, A., Inhorn, M. C., & Shenfield, F. (2019). Globalised quests for assisted conception: Reproductive travel for infertility and involuntary childlessness. Global Public Health, 14(12), 1669–1688.
Zagami, S. E., Roudsari, R. L., Janghorban, R., Bazaz, S. M. M., Amirian, M., & Allan, H. T. (2019). A qualitative study of the experiences of Iranian infertile couples after unsuccessful assisted reproductive technologies. International Journal of Women’s Health and Reproduction Sciences, 7(3), 331–338.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Farid, M.S. Ethical Issues in Sperm, Egg and Embryo Donation: Islamic Shia Perspectives. HEC Forum 36, 167–185 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-022-09498-4
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-022-09498-4