Abstract
Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), including in vitro fertilization to overcome infertility, are now widely available across the Middle East. Islamic fatwas emerging from the Sunni Islamic countries have permitted many ARTs, while prohibiting others. However, recent religious rulings emanating from Shia Muslim-dominant Iran have created unique avenues for infertile Muslim couples to obtain donor gametes through third-party reproductive assistance. The opening of Iran to gamete donation has had major impacts in Shia-dominant Lebanon and has led to so-called reproductive tourism of Sunni Muslim couples who are searching for donor gametes across national and international borders. This paper explores the “bioethical aftermath” of donor technologies in the Muslim Middle East. Other unexpected outcomes include new forms of sex selection and fetal “reduction.” In general, assisted reproduction in the Muslim world has been a key site for understanding how emerging biomedical technologies are generating new Islamic bioethical discourses and local moral responses, as ARTs are used in novel and unexpected ways.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Although a fatwa is non-legally binding, it is generally regarded as an authoritative Islamic religious decree, offered by an Islamic cleric who is considered to be an expert in Islamic jurisprudence.
The possible exception is Mali, where at least one IVF clinic is performing third-party reproductive assistance (Horbst 2015).
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, 1–28.
Al-Torki, S. (1980). Milk kinship in Arabic society: An unexplored problem in the ethnography of marriage. Ethnology, 19(2), 233–244.
Behnam, J. (1973). The social structures of family in Iran. Tehran: Tehran University Press.
Blyth, E., & Landau, T. (Eds.). (2004). Third party assisted conception across cultures: Social, legal, and ethical perspectives. London: Routledge.
Clarke, M. (2009). Islam and new kinship: Reproductive technology and the Shariah in Lebanon. New York: Berghahn Books.
Franklin, S. (2007). Dolly mixtures: The remaking of genealogy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Inhorn, M. C. (2003). Local babies, global science: Gender, religion, and in vitro fertilization in Egypt. New York: Routledge.
Inhorn, M. C. (2006). “He won’t be my son”: Middle Eastern Muslim men’s discourses of adoption and gamete donation. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 20, 94–120.
Inhorn, M. C. (2012). The new Arab man: Emergent masculinities, technologies, and Islam in the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Inhorn, M. C. (2015). Cosmopolitan conceptions: IVF sojourns in global Dubai. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Inhorn, M. C., & Patrizio, P. (2015). Infertility around the globe: New thinking on gender, reproductive technologies, and global movements in the 21st century. Human Reproduction Update,. doi:10.1093/humupd/dmv016.
Inhorn, M. C., & Tremayne, S. (Eds.). (2012). Islam and assisted reproductive technologies: Sunni and Shia perspectives. New York: Berghahn.
Khatib-Chahidi, J. (1992). Milk kinship in shi’ite Islamic Iran. In V. Maher (Ed.), The anthropology of breastfeeding: Natural law or social construct. Oxford: Berg.
Lotfalian, M. (2004). Islam, technoscientific identities, and the culture of curiosity. Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Mir-Hosseini, Z. (1998). Marriage on trial: A study of Islamic family law. London: I.B. Tauris.
Moosa, E. (2003). Human cloning in Muslim ethics (pp. 23–26). Fall: Voices Across Boundaries.
Saniei, M. (2012). Human embryonic stem cell research in Iran: the significance of the Islamic context. In M. C. Inhorn & S. Tremayne (Eds.), Islam and assisted reproductive technologies: Sunni and Shia perspectives. New York: Berghahn.
Serour, G. I. (2008). Islamic perspectives in human reproduction. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 17(Suppl. 3), 34–38.
Tremayne, S. (2009). Law, ethics, and donor technologies in Shia Iran. In D. Birenbaum-Carmeli & M. C. Inhorn (Eds.), Assisting reproduction, testing genes: Global encounters with new biotechnologies. New York: Berghahn.
Tremayne, S. (2012). The “down side” of gamete donation: challenging “happy family” rhetoric in Iran. In M. C. Inhorn & S. Tremayne (Eds.), Islam and assisted reproductive technologies: Sunni and Shia perspectives. New York: Berghahn.
Williams, R. (1978). Marxism and literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Horbst, V. (2015). You cannot do IVF in Africa as in Europe: The cases of Mali and Uganda. Reproductive BioMedicine and Society (submitted).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Inhorn, M.C., Tremayne, S. Islam, Assisted Reproduction, and the Bioethical Aftermath. J Relig Health 55, 422–430 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0151-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0151-1