A senior lecturer at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Dr. Muhammad Kamaldeen, has told infertile couples to shun alternative procreation.
The Islamic scholar gave the advice in an online Ramadan lecture on Wednesday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
Speaking on parentage and prohibitions, he advised couples to seek other medical treatment.
Kamaldeen called surrogacy, egg and sperm donorship “haram”, explaining that such was against Islam.
“The Islamic Fiqh Council, after reviewing all the research submitted on invitro fertilization and after consulting experts in the field, concluded that five forms of in vitro fertilization are prohibited, while two are allowed,” The Nation quoted him as saying.
“The five procedures that are completely illegal are egg donorship, sperm donorship, Gestational Surrogacy, Egg and sperm donorship and Co-Wives Surrogacy, because they result in confusion.”
Kamaldeen likened the procedures to adultery (Zina), arguing that the surrogate mother would carry the fertilized egg of another person that’s not her legal husband.
“It is a violation of fidelity, as it changes the biological relationship between parents and offspring, and threatens the integrity of lineage or kinship. The child produced, therefore, has no lineage through legal marriage and will have to be considered as illegitimate.
“Therefore, if the product is haram, the means of acquiring the product (the surrogate’s renting of her womb) is also haram. There is an overwhelmingly high probability for emotional and legal confrontation between the two mothers.
“The most compelling evidence of this position in the Qur’an is Chapter 58 vs 2 where it is stated that: mothers are only those who conceived them and gave birth to them.”
The lecturer added that there should be no third-party in marriages which he said was the case with renting a womb for childbirth and donation of sperm or eggs.
Recently, Dr. Esther Somefun, a Gender and Reproductive Health Analyst, said Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) remains one of the causes of infertility.
FGM, popularly known as ‘circumcision’, is the partial or total removal of female external genitalia due to non-medical reasons.
Somefun said women who went through this can “experience painful sex, infertility, pelvic inflammatory infections, menstrual pains and keloids”.
“FGM can also cause obstructed labour due to the narrowing of the external genitalia. Women with type two and three FGM are most at risk during child birth”, the expert noted.
