Title: Surrogacy for a Legitimate Couple Question: If the sperm of the husband and ovum of his wife is united in vitro and then the fertilized ovum is placed in a third woman (a surrogate) who is offering to carry the baby because wife cannot medically carry the pregnancy. Will it be like a wet nurse i.e. breast feeding another baby? Is it allowed? Please note that cells of those persons have been united who are married to each other. Now if you still think it is forbidden then what if even surrogate is the man's second wife? Please give references and arguments not just what you think or feel. Thank you. I am trusting you more than big guns of Fiq'h sp please spend specially some time on this question. Albert Durran Canada Answer: Before answering your question, I would like to clarify that in all such matters where the Shari`ah has not expressly given a specific positive or negative verdict, a student of religion, like myself, has no other option but to give his opinion in the light of his overall concept and understanding of the spirit of Islamic directives. It is extremely difficult in such cases to provide any specific references and citations from the primary sources of the Shari`ah . The issue that you have pointed out is not even indirectly covered by the primary sources of the Shari`ah - the Qur'an and the Sunnah . In view of this fact, I do not have any option but to give my opinion on the basis of my overall understanding of Islamic directives and my comprehension of the spirit of these directives. With the foregoing clarification in perspective, I do not consider any of the referred kinds of arrangements to be in keeping with the overall spirit of the directives of the Shari`ah and, therefore, I do not approve of any one of them. Nevertheless, because the referred issue of surrogacy has not expressly been prohibited by the Shari`ah , no one has the authority to say that such arrangements are prohibited in Islam. On the contrary, you may find a number of Muslim scholars who hold such arrangements to be allowable in Islam. I do appreciate that this state of affairs may be somewhat confusing for a common man, yet the fact remains that even a common man will have to academically appreciate such differences of opinions and then make up his own mind regarding which one of these differing opinions seem more correct to him. My opinion in this regard is not based on the legitimacy or otherwise of the child that is born of such an arrangement. On the contrary, it is based on the potential socio-moral implications that it is likely to entail for the child. As I understand it, it is, in fact, not the child's biological or cellular composition, which creates a strong bond between the mother and the child, on the contrary, it is a combination of a number of factors, which may include but are definitely not limited to the child's biological and cellular composition. One of the primary bonding forces in this relationship is the developmental process which the child goes through in its mother's womb, the experiences and even the discomforts that the mother goes through in giving shape to a new, living human being, which she will later call her child. In my personal opinion, the psychological basis of the strong mother-child relationship is based much more strongly on the developmental process that the child goes through while in its mother's womb than on the biological composition of the child. In view of the foregoing, it seems to me that the concept of surrogacy - even though it may not affect the biological and cellular composition of the child - has potentially great implications on the mother-child relationship. The application of this concept divides the "motherhood" of a child in two. A natural and complete mother of a child is the woman, who has not only contributed in the physical, biological and cellular composition of the child, but who has also carried the child in its womb, taking it through its embryo and fetal stages. The concept of surrogacy in motherhood completely ignores the enormous implications that the processes and experiences of embryo and fetal development have on the mother-child relationship. In view of the fact that the concept of surrogacy reduces the mother-child relationship to merely a biological and cellular relationship and thereby divides the 'motherhood' of the child in two, as well as in view of the negative social and socio-moral repercussions that this concept is likely to have on the child's life, I do not approve of such an arrangement. Nevertheless, as I have stated earlier, there can be a difference of opinion in such matters. I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad October 7, 2002