Question:

Hi! My name is Diana

I am doing a school assignment for studies of religion at school and it asks me to research how two different religious traditions respond to euthanasia and abortion. I’ve been looking everywhere and came to this website and thought you mite help me. What does Islam has to say about EUTHANASIA and ABORTION?

Thank you.

Diana
Sydney, Australia

Answer:

Thank you for contacting JI Diana!
An assignment warrants serious in-depth studies, references and review, which means spending time and labour in libraries and other useful sources. Briefly, Islam does not permit abortion under normal health conditions, and considers it an elaborate act of killing an innocent person, which is heinous crime under any law.
Let me briefly explain for you once again.

(1) Abortion could be allowed for a lady's health sake, and that too when properly suggested by some responsible specialist/physician.

(2) Under normal health conditions, and particularly when the foetus is developed enough (that specialists consider it a live body), abortion amounts to deliberate killing and therefore, not allowed.

(3) Abortion or even prevention of conception for fear of economic hardships, is the negation of the basic article of Islamic faith that God is sole Provider and Sustainer of every living soul. That being the reason, the act will be un-Islamic.

(4) Seeking abortion for no "good" reason at all, and saying that the "mother" or "father" just does not want that baby - is inhuman and cruel thinking. No sane person would allow that.

(5) If even the conception is the result of extra-marital union or forced rape, abortion is not allowed, because the (innocent) baby to be, has the right to life, that can not be denied. The biological parents - both or either one - or else the society/state is responsible to take care of such "un-wanted" or illegal births.

Authentic specialist (medical) opinion can be obtained to ascertain if there was any serious danger to mother and child, and that there was really no other way to save the mother’s life, but through abortion. That seems only one condition, where abortion could be considered, again under the guidance of some learned scholar of Islamic Law. I am personally so scared about this issue of “abortion at demand”, that I generally flatly refuse to subscribe to the idea. The reason is that women (and at time husband as well) demand abortion for petty reasons, that only reflect inhuman anti-natalist mood. I am almost sure that in over-whelming cases the demand emanates from social taboos, the base-less economic fears, for not wanting to have a she baby and by way of fashion that has come along with the western concept of individuals’ rights and worldview. In a traditional Islamic society where alien culture is yet not dominant, the demand for abortion, or desire for a small family and the like, are still at the minimum level. Probably those areas provide genuine cases, where consideration was possible.

On the issue of euthanasia, Islamic position is that since a human being does not owns and masters his/her life, therefore, he can NOT decide and ask for death. No. The Islamic view starts from the fact that life (like the rest) is a trust from Allah, and can be terminated by Allah alone. There can be no euthanasia, whether with "dignity" or otherwise.