Islamic Society & Culture
Organ Donation:
With the advancements in medical
sciences, new ethical issues like organ transplant and blood transfusion to
save human lives came up. The Islamic
scholars have resolved them through Ijtehad. Hence the blood transfusion and
organ transplant are considered as permissible in Islam to save the human
lives. To use an organ from a living person for transplantation into another is
permissible if this does not endanger his own life and the recipient or his
family or the state or any other authority does not put the donor under any
pressure to give away his organ. If some one
donates his organ, he must do so out of his own free choice. It is not
difficult to imagine a variety of situations where people are pressurized into
donating their kidneys, or indeed forced to do so. In some countries, where
political prisoners are subject to various methods of torture it is very easy
for the authorities to rob them of various parts of their bodies.
Pressure or
the use of force in this respect is absolutely forbidden. The blood and organ
donation also earn rich reward from Allah because, He attaches great values the
human life. Some times blood transfusion is the only way to save the life of a
person badly injured in an accident, or needing blood for an operation. Some
people with blood diseases need blood transfusion on regular basis.
The medical
science has not advanced to the level as yet, where in the blood cannot be
manufactured outside the human body. The only way to get blood is through
donation and transfusion. Hence people are encouraged to donate blood. It is
permitted for a Muslim to donate blood to a non-Muslim or vice versa on
humanitarian grounds. It is also allowed to transplant organs between people of
different faiths or to utilize the organs of animals (excluding pigs) for
transplantation into human bodies if that is likely to prolong the life of the
recipient.
If the kidney or an organ is
donated after the death of the donor, the transplant is also permissible:
Islam
teaches us to respect the body of any dead person. Narrated Aysha, Ummul
Mu'minin: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “To break the bone of a dead
person is the same as breaking the bone of a living person.” (Sunan of Abu
Dawood, Hadith.1417). This means that Islam views any disfigurement of the
corpse as a punishable crime. This idea of respecting the dead body is well
instilled in the minds of the Muslims so much so, that examples of any
disfigurement of dead enemy soldiers is not found in the history of Islam, as
often happens in wars. However this principle is overridden by a well-defined
interest of the community. Leading scholars mention that if a person swallows
something valuable which does not belong to him, say a diamond ring, and he
dies afterward, it is permissible to open up his tummy in order to retrieve
that diamond ring and give it back to its owner. Moreover, if a group of
unbelievers fighting the Muslim state take a Muslim hostage or make use of him
as a shield to protect themselves, it is permissible to kill that Muslim person
if killing him is the only way to overcome those unbelievers. Working on these
principles, contemporary scholars agree that organ transplant operations are
permissible.
The interest that such operations serve is quite obvious. Such
operations do not involve any disrespect to the dead. Indeed they are done with
the greatest respect to the donor. The family of the deceased is considered the
owner of his body. Their permission is necessary for using any part of the body
of the dead person for transplantation, unless he has indicated during his life
that he is willing for his body to be used for transplantation. In order to
establish the cause of death and the possibility of any crime having been
committed, postmortem is permissible. It is also acceptable that a postmortem is
carried on a dead person if in the opinion of the qualified doctors such a
postmortem may help in curing similar cases of illness.
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