Is research on leftover embryos permitted?

Islam does not reject research as such. It measures it against two principles: a person’s lineage must remain clear, and responsibility for raising children must be clearly assigned.

In fertility treatment more embryos are often produced than are needed. Some researchers wish to use these leftover embryos for experiments. The question is how Islam assesses such new possibilities.

Islam does not offer a long list of individual cases here. Instead, it names the purposes that reproduction serves. The first is the purity of lineage. Every child should know who its parents are. The first verse above shows how important this is.

The second purpose is responsibility. Children are not only to be born but also to be raised well. The Holy Qur’an divides this task according to clear rules. In principle the father bears responsibility for the children’s upkeep, and the mother may share in it. The second verse above describes this order.

Even the joy that God has attached to marriage has a purpose. It is bound up with an important task, namely raising the next generation responsibly. Whoever seeks only the pleasure and forgets the task misses the point.

This gives us a simple test. Islam has no reason to oppose any scientific research that does not violate these two purposes. Anyone who wants to judge a particular experiment can ask: does lineage remain clear, and does responsibility for a child remain unambiguous? With these two questions every case can be honestly examined.